Table of Contents

• KAʿBA-YE ZARDOŠT

  Gerd Gropp

  “Kaʿba of Zoroaster,” an ancient building at Naqš-e Rostam near Persepolis.

• KABĀB

  Etrat Elahi

  popular dish which traditionally consists of meat cut in cubes, or ground and shaped into balls; these are threaded onto a skewer and broiled over a brazier of charcoal embers.

• KABIR-KUH

  Majdodin Keyvani

  one of the long ranges of the Zagros mountains, lying between Iran’s two western provinces of Loristan and Ilām.

• KABISA

  Simone Cristoforetti

  Arabic term used in calendrical context; “intercalary,” “embolismal.” It is applied to several readjustments that occurred in the Iranian solar calendar.

• KĀBOL MAGAZINE

  Wali Ahmadi

  monthly magazine of the Kabul Literary Society, 1931-40.

• KĀBOLI

  Rawan Farhadi and J. R. Perry

  the colloquial Persian spoken in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, and its environs. It has been a common and prestigious vernacular for several centuries, since Kabul was long ruled by dynasts of Iran (the Safavids) or India (the Mughals) for whom Persian was the language of culture and administration.

• KĀBOLI, ʿAbdallāh Ḵᵛāja

  Maria Szuppe

  (also known as Kāboli Naqšbandi and Heravi), historiographer and poet of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. 

• KABUL

  Multiple Authors

  (Kābol), capital of Afghanistan, also the name of its province and a river.

• KABUL i. GEOGRAPHY OF THE PROVINCE

  Andreas Wilde

• KABUL ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

  Xavier de Planhol

  Before the period of war and unrest in Afghanistan that started in 1978, almost all the functions concerned with governing the country and directing its international relations were concentrated in Kabul. This primacy among Afghan cities is due to an exceptionally favorable geographical site.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KABUL iii. HISTORY FROM THE 16TH CENTURY TO THE ACCESSION OF MOḤAMMAD ẒĀHER SHAH

  May Schinasi

  Kabul was a small town until the 16th century, when Ẓahir-al-Din Bābor (1483-1530), the first of the Great Mughals, made it his capital.

• KABUL iv. URBAN POLITICS SINCE ẒĀHER SHAH

  Daniel E. Esser

  The first master plan marked an important attempt to reorganize the spatial structure of the city. A first revision was authorized in 1971.

• KABUL v. MONUMENTS OF KABUL CITY

  Jonathan Lee

  This article focuses on the major monuments in and around the Old City of Kabul and the most significant Dorrāni dynastic monuments and mausolea.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KABUL LITERARY SOCIETY

  Wali Ahmadi

  (Anjoman-e adabi-e Kābol), the first official academic and cultural association of Afghanistan, 1930-40.

• KABUL MUSEUM

  Carla Grissmann

  popular name of the National Museum of Afghanistan. A modest collection of artifacts and manuscripts already existed in the time of King Ḥabib-Allāh (r. 1901–19). In 1931 the collection was finally installed in a building in rural Darulaman (Dār-al-amān), eight kilometers south of Kabul City.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KABUL RIVER

  Andreas Wilde

  in eastern Afghanistan. It forms one of Afghanistan’s four major river systems and is the only Afghan river that flows, as tributary of the Indus, into the sea.

• KĀČI

  Etrat Elahi and Majdodin Keyvani

  a traditional Persian dish generally made of rice flour, cooking oil, sugar diluted in water, and turmeric or saffron.

• KADAGISTĀN

  Nicholas Sims-Williams

  an eastern province of the Sasanian empire. The clearest evidence for the existence of such a province is provided by a bulla bearing the impression of a seal.

• ḴĀDEM MIṮĀQ

  Amir Hossein Pourjavady

  (1907-1958), musician, teacher, conductor, and composer.

• ḴĀDEM-E BESṬĀMI

  Kioumars Ghereghlou

  , Moḥammad Ṭāher b. Ḥasan, local historian, calligrapher, and poet of the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I.

• KADIMI

  Ramiyar P. Karanjia

  a Zoroastrian sect (Ar. qadim “old, ancient”). The movement emerged in 18th-century India.

• KADḴODĀ

  Willem Floor and EIr.

  principal meaning “headman,” from Middle Persian kadag-xwadāy, lit. “head of a household."

• KADPHISES, KUJULA

  Osmund Bopearachchi

  (1st cent. CE), first Kuṣān king, founder of the Kuṣāna dynasty in Central Asia and India.

• KAEMPFER, ENGELBERT

  Detlef Haberland

  German physician and traveler to Russia, the Orient, and the Far East (1651-1716).

• KAĒTA

  William W. Malandra

  an Avestan word whose approximate meaning is ‘soothsayer.’

• KAFIR KALA

  Boris Litvinsky

  (Kāfer Qalʿa), ancient settlement and one of the largest archeological monuments of the Vakhsh river valley, on the western outskirts of Kolkhozabad, Tajikistan. The city (šahrestān) together with the citadel form a square, each side 360 m long, oriented approximately to the cardinal points.

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• ḴAFRI, ŠAMS-AL-DIN

  George Saliba

  , Moḥammad b. Aḥmad-e Kāši, one of the most competent of all the mathematical astronomers and planetary theorists of medieval Islam (d. 956/1550).

• KAFTARI WARE

  C. A. Petrie

  distinctive ceramic vessels dated to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE, primarily found in Fārs.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ḴĀGINA

  Etrat Elahi

  a traditional Persian dish; most of the recipes are very similar to those for making a plain omelet.

• KAHAK

  Farhad Daftary

  Markazi Province, a village located about 35 km northeast of Anjedān and northwest of Maḥallāt in central Iran, with ruins of a fairly large caravanserai.

• KAIFENG

  Donald D. Leslie

  medieval capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) and home of a Judeo-Persian community.

• KAJAKAY DAM

  Siddieq Noorzoy

  dam built on the Helmand River as a part of the multi-faceted projects aimed at the development of the Helmand Valley.

• KĀK

  Etrat Elahi and Eir.

  a general term applied to several kinds of flat bread or small, often thin, dry cakes variously shaped and made.

• KĀKĀʾI

  Philip G. Kreyenbroek

  a term used both for a tribal federation and for a religious group in Iraqi Kurdistan. 

• KĀKAGI

  Arley Loewen

  the customs and characteristics of a kāka—a vagabond or vigilante characterized by the ideals of chivalry, courage, generosity, and loyalty.

• KĀKĀVAND

  Pierre Oberling

  a Lor tribe of the Delfān group, settled in the Piškuh region of Luristan (Lorestān), as well as west of Qazvin and in the Ṭārom region.

• ḴĀKI ḴORĀSĀNI, EMĀMQOLI

  S. J. Badakhchani

  Ismaʿili poet and preacher of 17th-century Persia (d. after 1646).

• ḴĀKSĀR

  Zahra Taheri

  a strictly popular order of Persian dervishes, favored by artisans and shopkeepers.

• KĀKUYIDS

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  [KAKWAYHIDS], a dynasty of Deylamite origin that ruled in western Persia, Jebāl, and Kurdistan about 1008-51 as independent princes.

• ḴALAF B. AḤMAD

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  b. Moḥammad, Abu Aḥmad (d. 1009), Amir in Sistān of the “second line” of Saffarids, who ruled between 963 and 1003.

• KALĀNTAR

  Willem Floor

  “chief, leader,” from the late 15th century onwards, particularly the local official (mayor) in charge of the administration of a town.

• KALĀRESTĀQ

  Multiple Authors

  i. The District and Sub-District.  ii. The Dialect.

• KALĀRESTĀQ i. The District and Sub-District

  Habib Borjian

  This predominantly mountainous district extends along the Caspian coast from the Namakābrud (Namakāvarud) river on the west to the Čālus river on the east.

• KALĀRESTĀQ ii. The Dialect

  Habib Borjian

  The Caspian vernaculars spoken in Kalārestāq, together with those of Tonekābon district, may not be properly classified as either Māzandarāni or Gilaki but serve as a transition between these two language groups.

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• KALĀT-E NĀDERI

  Xavier de Planhol

  an elevated, isolated plateau in the mountains of Khorasan, some 150 km north of Mašhad, edged with steep cliffs that transform it into an almost inaccessible natural fortress. 

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• KALBĀSI

  Hamid Algar

  Ḥāj Moḥammad Ebrāhim (b. Isfahan, 1766; d. Isfahan, 1845), prominent Oṣuli jurist, influential in the affairs of Isfahan during the reigns of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah and Moḥammad Shah.

• ḴĀLEDI, Mehdi

  E. Naḵjavāni

  Persian violinist and songwriter (1919-1990). As a violinist, Ḵāledi was known for his command of traditional Persian music.

• KALEMĀT-E MAKNUNA

  Moojan Momen

• ḴĀLEQI, RUḤ-ALLĀH

  Hormoz Farhat

  (1906-1965), Persian music educator, composer, and music scholar.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KALHOR

  Pierre Oberling

  a Kurdish tribe in the southernmost part of Persian Kurdistan. The last of the great Kalhor chiefs was Dāwud Khan, who ruled the tribe in the early 1900s.

• KALHOR, Mirzā Mohammad-Reżā

  Maryam Ekhtiar

  (1829-1892), one of the most prominent 19th-century Persian calligraphers.

• ḴALIFA SOLṬĀN

  Rudi Matthee

  (1592/93-1654), grand vizier under Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1588-1629) and then again under Shah ʿAbbās II (r. 1642-66).

• ḴALIL SOLṬĀN b. MIRĀNŠĀH b. TIMUR

  Beatrice Forbes Manz

  Timurid ruler (1405-09).

• ḴALIL, MOḤAMMAD EBRĀHIM

  Wali Ahmadi

• ḴALIL-ALLĀH ŠAH

  Nasrollah Pourjavady

  (or Sayyed) BORHĀN-AL-DIN (b. 1373-74, d. 1455-56), the only son of the Sufi master, Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali of Kermān.

• KALILA wa DEMNA

  Multiple Authors

  collection of didactic animal fables, with the jackals Kalila and Demna as two of the principal characters.  The story cycle originated in India between 500 BCE and 100 BC, and circulated widely in the Near East.

• KALILA wa DEMNA i. Redactions and circulation

  Dagmar Riedel

  In Persian literature Kalila wa Demna has been known in different versions since the 6th century CE.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KALILA WA DEMNA iii. ILLUSTRATIONS

  Bernard O’Kane

  a collection of didactic animal fables, with the jackals Kalila and Demna as two of the principal characters.

• ḴALILI, ʿABBĀS

  Hasan Mirabedini

  political activist, journalist, translator, poet, and novelist (b. Najaf, 1895; d. Tehran, 1971).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ḴALILI, ḴALIL-ALLĀH

  Wali Ahmadi

  renowned 20th-century Afghan poet in Dari (Persian), literary historian, scholar, and high-ranking official. Ḵalili is regarded as one of the last great vestiges of the traditional Persianate culture in Afghanistan, where erudition and classical training were particularly valued.

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• KALIM KĀŠĀNI

  Daniela Meneghini

  (b. ca. 1581-85, d. 1651), Persian poet and one of the leading exponents of the “Indian style” (sabk-e hendi).

• KALIMI

  Amnon Netzer

  the word used to refer to the Jews of Iran in modern Persian usage.

• ḴALIQ LĀHURI

  Stefano Pello

   Indo-Persian poet of the 18th-century, probably a Sikh.

• ḴALḴĀLI, Sayyed ʿAbd-al-Raḥim

  Hushang Ettehad and EIr

  (d. 1942), journalist, translator, and the editor of the collected poems of Ḥafeẓ.

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• ḴĀLKUBI

  Willem Floor

  making a permanent mark on the skin by inserting a pigment, is one of the oldest methods of body ornamentation. 

• KALLA-PĀČA

  Etrat Elahi

  a traditional dish made of sheep’s head and trotters and cooked over low heat, usually overnight.

• KALLAJUŠ

  Etrat Elahi & EIr.

  an old Iranian dish, also pronounced kālajuš, kālājuš, kaljuš in different parts of Iran.

• ḴĀLU

  Pierre Oberling

  a small Turkic tribe of Kermān province.

• KALURAZ

  TADAHIKO OHTSU

  archeological site (lat 36°54′ N, long 49°28′ E) 1.1 km west of Rostam Ābād city, 11.7 km northeast of Rudbār in Gilan Province.

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• KAMĀL ḴOJANDI

  Paul Losensky

  (ca. 1320-1401), Persian poet and Sufi also known as Shaikh Kamāl.

• KAMĀL PĀŠĀ-ZĀDA, ŠAMS-AL-DIN AḤMAD

  T. Yazici

  (1468-1534), prolific Ottoman scholar, author of several works in and on Persian.

• KAMĀL-AL-DIN EṢFAHĀNI

  David Durand-Guédy

  poet from Isfahan, noted for his mastery of the panegyric.

• KAMĀL-AL-DIN ḤOSAYN

  Colin Paul Mitchell

  ḤĀFEŻ-E HARAVI, a prominent Safavid calligrapher during the reign of Shah Tˈahmāsp I (r. 1524-76).

• KAMĀL-AL-MOLK, MOḤAMMAD ḠAFFĀRI

  A. Ashraf with Layla Diba

  (ca. 1859–1940), widely acclaimed Iranian painter of the European academic style during the late Qajar and early Pahlavi periods. He descended from a family that had produced a number of artists since the Afsharid period, including his paternal great-grandfather, Mirzā Abu’l-Ḥasan Mostawfi, a court painter during the reign of Nāder Shah Afshar (r. 1736-47) and Karim Khan Zand (r. 1750-79).

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• KAMĀLI BOḴĀRĀʾI

  Nasrollah Pourjavady

  , ʿAmid Kamāl-al-Din, a court poet, musician, and calligrapher at the court of Sultan Sanjar, the Saljuqid king (r. 1097-1118), during his rule in Khorasan.

• KAMĀNČA

  Stephen Blum

  (lit. “small bow”), the most common term throughout much of the Iranian world for a spike fiddle with a small, often spherical, resonating chamber.

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• KĀMI AḤMED ÇELEBI

  Osman G. Özgüdenlī

   Ottoman scholar, judge, writer, and translator.

• KĀMI MEHMED-I KARAMĀNI

  Osman G. Özgüdenlī

  Ottoman scholar, judge, poet, and translator.

• KĀMRĀN B. SHAH MAḤMUD

  Christine Nöelle-Karimi

  Sadōzāy ruler of Herat (r. 1826-42).

• KĀMRĀN MIRZĀ

  Sunil Sharma

  second son of the founder of the Mughal empire, Ẓahir-al-Din Moḥammad Bābor (q.v.) and of Golroḵ Begom, and half-brother of the emperor Homāyun (q.v.).

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• ḴAMSA OF NEẒĀMI

  Domenico Parrello

  the quintet of narrative poems for which Neẓāmi Ganjavi (1141-1209) is universally acclaimed.

• ḴAMSA TRIBE

  Pierre Oberling

  a tribal confederacy formed in the 19th century comprising five large tribes in Fārs province.

• ḴAMSA-ye AMIR ḴOSROW

  Sunil Sharma

  a quintet of poems in the mathnawi form written by Amir Ḵosrow between 1298 and 1302, as a response to Neẓāmi’s immensely popular Panj ganj (Five Treasures).

• ḴAMSA-ye JAMĀLI

  Paola Orsatti

  a suite of five mathnawis, composed in response to the Ḵamsa by Neẓāmi (1141-1209).

• KAMSARAKAN

  C. Toumanoff

  Armenian noble family that was an offshoot of the Kāren Pahlav, one of the seven great houses of Iran claiming Arsacid origin.

• ḴĀNĀ QOBĀDI

  Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Parwin Mahmoudweyssi

  (fl. ca.1700-1759 or 1778), Gurāni poet.

• ḴĀNA-YE EDRISIHĀ

  SOHEILA SAREMI

  A novel in two volumes, Ḵāna-ye Edrisihā is set in 1910s, and takes place in a house in Ashkhabad (ʿEšqābād), the capital city of the Republic of Turkmenistan.

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• KANAF

  Bahram Grami

  (Hibiscus cannabinus L.), an annual herbaceous plant of the Malvaceae family, yielding a soft fiber from the stem bark. Its fiber is used primarily for making gunnysacks and burlap. The first gunny mill (guni bāfi) in Persia was established in 1933 in Rašt by the private sector.

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• ḴĀNAQĀH

  Gerhard Böwering and Matthew Melvin-Koushki

  an Islamic institution and physical establishment, principally reserved for Sufi dervishes to meet, reside, study, and assemble and pray together as a group in the presence of a Sufi master (Arabic, šayḵ, Persian, pir), who is teacher, educator, and leader of the group.

• KANDAHAR

  Multiple Authors

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• KANDAHAR i. Historical Geography to 1979

  Xavier de Planhol

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KANDAHAR ii. Pre-Islamic Monuments and Remains

  Gérard Fussman

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• KANDAHAR iii. Early Islamic Period

  Minoru Inaba

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• KANDAHAR iv. From The Mongol Invasion Through the Safavid Era

  Rudi Matthee and Hiroyuki Mashita

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• KANDAHAR v. In the 19th Century

  Shah Mahmoud Hanifi

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• KANDAHAR vi. 20th Century, 1901-73

  M. Jamil Hanifi

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• KANDAHAR vii. From 1973 to the Present

  Antonio Giustozzi

  city in southern Afghanistan (lat 31°36′28″ N, long 65°42′19″ E), the second most important in the country and the capital of Kandahar province.

• ḴANDAQ

  Michael G. Morony

  a Persian loanword in Arabic meaning a trench or a moat (lit. “dug”), possibly also a wall or an enclosure.

• KANGARLU

  P. OBERLING

  a Turkic tribe of Azerbaijan and the Qom-Verāmin region of central Persia. 

• KANGAVAR

  Wolfram Kleiss

  town in eastern Kermanshah Province, on the modern road from Hamadan to Kermanshah, identical with a trace of the silk road. Isidorus of Charax (1st century CE) referred to it as Congobar and mentioned a temple of Anāhitā (Anaitis) there. The site has ruins of debated date and nature.

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• KANGDEZ

  Pavel Lurje

  (lit. “Fortress of Kang,”), a mythical, paradise-like fortress in Iranian folklore.

• KANI, ḤĀJ MOLLĀ ʿALI

  Hamid Algar

  Shiʿi scholar whose power and prominence in the affairs of Tehran for more than four decades earned him the semi-official title of raʾis al-mojtahedin (“chief of the mojtaheds”), as well as accusations of inordinate greed.

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• KANJAKI

  Nicholas Sims-Williams

  language mentioned in the 11th-century Turkish lexicon of Maḥmud al-Kāšḡari as being spoken in the villages near Kāšḡar.

• ḴĀNLARI, PARVIZ NĀTEL

  Cross-reference

  See KHANLARI, PARVIZ NATEL (pending).

• ḴĀNOM

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  a title for highborn women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  an institute with a wide range of cultural, artistic, and educational activities for children and adolescents, founded in December 1965.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN i. Establishment of Kanun

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  Kanun’s goal was to produce and offer support and services for children in better settings than the grim and austere school classrooms.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN ii. Libraries

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  A children’s library, conceived by the founders of Kanun as a pilot project for future libraries, was approved, and construction began in 1965.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN ii. Libraries

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  an institute with a wide range of cultural, artistic, and educational activities for children and adolescents, founded under the patronage of Queen (Shahbanou) Farah Pahlavi in December 1965.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN iii. Book Publishing

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  When Kanun began producing children’s books, there were no specialized children’s book publishers in Iran.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN iv. International Film Festivals

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  Kanun organized its first international film festival for children (Noḵostin festivāl-e bayn-al-melali-e filmhā-ye kudakān o nowjavānān) in 1966, its first official year.

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• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN v. Film Production: 1970-77

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  Kanun productions were the first experience of film direction for a number of today’s best-known Iranian directors.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN vi. Music and Sound Production

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  In 1967, Kanun produced only one storytelling phonograph record. Regular music and sound production did not begin until 1971.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN vii. Visual Arts Training Center

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  In the beginning, each artistic training program was independent, and the subjects were not coordinated under an overall artistic training management.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN viii. The Pioneers and Promoters

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  Of the initial contributors to Kanun’s production activities, many artists and writers submitted only one or two works.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN ix. From 1979 to 2009: An Overview

  Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

  Due to Iran’s rapid urbanization and in order to cope with the increasing demands for cultural centers, Kanun needed to develop and to expand its centers.

• KAPADIA, DINSHAH DORABJI

  Burzine K. Waghmar

  Parsi scholar and educator.

• ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI

  Anna Livia Beelaert

  a major Persian poet and prose writer (b. Šervān, ca. 521/1127; d. Tabriz, between 582/1186-87 and 595/1199).

• ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI i. Life

  Anna Livia Beelaert

  (1127-1186/1199), major Persian poet and prose writer.

• ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI ii. Works

  Anna Livia Beelaert

  a major Persian poet and prose writer (b. Šervān, ca. 521/1127; d. Tabriz, between 582/1186-87 and 595/1199).

• KĀR-NĀMA-YE BALḴ

  J. T . P. de Bruijn

  a short maṯnavi by Sanāʾi of Ghazna (d. 1131), containing panegyric as well as satirical verses addressed to, or describing, people from various layers of Ghaznavid society.

• KĀR-NĀMAG Ī ARDAŠĪR Ī PĀBAGĀN

  C. G. CERETI

  short prose work written in Middle Persian. It narrates the Sasanian king Ardašīr I’s life story—his rise to the throne, battle against the Parthian king Ardawān, and conquest of the empire. 

• KARĀʾI

  P. Oberling

  a Turkic-speaking tribe of Azerbaijan, Khorasan, Kermān and Fārs.

• KARABALGASUN

  Toshio Hayashi, Y. Yoshida

  archeological site of a capital of the Uighur Khaghanate (second half of the 8th century to first half of the 9th century).

• KARABALGASUN i. The Site

  Toshio Hayashi

  archeological site of a capital of the Uighur Khaghanate (second half of the 8th century to first half of the 9th century).

• KARABALGASUN ii. The Inscription

  Y. Yoshida

  archeological site of a capital of the Uighur Khaghanate (second half of the 8th century to first half of the 9th century).

• KARAFTO CAVES

  Hubertus von Gall

  an ensemble of artificially cut rock chambers dated to the 4th or 3rd century BCE, in Kordestān Province, 20 km west of Takab. The site is of considerable importance because of its Greek inscription, one of the very few examples preserved in situ in Persia.

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• KARAJ i. Modern City

  Bernard Hourcade

  a town in Tehran province, located 36 km west of the city of Tehran on the western bank of the Karaj River (q.v.; lat 35° 46ʹ N, long 50° 49ʹ E; elev., 1,360 m).

• KARAJ ii. Population

  Habibollah Zanjani

  a town in Tehran province, located 36 km west of the city of Tehran on the western bank of the Karaj River (q.v.; lat 35° 46ʹ N, long 50° 49ʹ E; elev., 1,360 m).

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• KARAJ CITY

  a town in Tehran province, located 36 km west of the city of Tehran on the western bank of the Karaj River (q.v.; lat 35° 46ʹ N, long 50° 49ʹ E; elev., 1,360 m).

• KARAJ DAM

  Cross-reference

  See AMIR KABIR DAM (forthcoming in 2011).

• KARAJ RIVER

  Bernard Hourade

  the second major permanent river of the central Iranian plateau after the Zāyandarud river.

• KARAKI

  Rula Jurdi Abisaab

  Nur-al-Din Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli b. Ḥosayn b. ʿAbd-al-ʿĀli, known as Moḥaqqeq al-Ṯāni or Moḥaqqeq ʿAli (1464-1533), a major Imamite jurist.

• KARĀMA

  Erik S. Ohlander

  “(saintly) marvel, wonder, or miracle” in Arabic (pl. karāmāt).

• KARAPAN

  William Malandra

  (or Karpan), designation of members of a class of daivic priests opposed to the religion of Zarathustra.

• KARBALA

  Meir Litvak

  a city in Iraq, situated about 90 km southwest of Baghdad.

• KÁRDAKES

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  the name of a Persian military unit mentioned several times by Greek and Roman authors, nearly always in relation to the Achaemenid period (cf. Huyse, p. 199, n. 6).

• KĀRGOZĀR

  Morteza Nouraei

  a term used from the early 19th century until the abolishment of capitulation (kāpitulāsion) in 1927 to refer specifically to an agent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was charged with regulating relations between Iranian subjects and foreigners.

• KARIM DEVONA

  Keith Hitchins

  pen-name of Abdul-Karim Qurbon, Tajik folk poet (1878-1918).

• KARIM KHAN ZAND

  John R. Perry

  (ca. 1705-1779), “The Wakil,” ruler of Persia (except Khorasan) from Shiraz during 1751-79. The Zand were a pastoral tribe of the Lak branch of the northern Lors, ranging between the inner Zagros and the Hamadān plains, centered on the villages of Pari and Kamāzān in the vicinity of Malāyer.

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• KĀRIZ i. Terminology

  Xavier de Planhol

  underground irrigation canals, also called qanāt.

• KĀRIZ ii. Technology

  Xavier de Planhol

  The technology of kārēz exploits a difference in grade between a tunnel and the groundwater table. The grade of the tunnel is less steep than the grade of the water table, so that the tunnel ends at an elevation distinctly higher than that of the water table. In Iran the average grade may be around 0.5 percent.

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• KĀRIZ iii. Economic and Social Contexts

  Xavier de Planhol

  The major significance of the kārēz lies in its continuous discharge throughout the year. In contrast, irrigation systems that rely on surface water runoff can completely cease to discharge water during the dry season. The continuous discharge, however, needs be distinguished from a constant discharge. Significant seasonal variations can be observed.

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• KĀRIZ iv. Origin and Dissemination

  Xavier de Planhol

  Far simpler techniques of water adduction involving underground channels must be clearly distinguished from kārēz, although they are often grouped together.

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• KĀRIZ v. Kārēz in the Late 20th Century and Their Prospects

  Xavier de Planhol

  In 1990 it was estimated that the kārēz technique supplied water to around 1.5 million hectares of the planet’s total irrigated surface area, which constituted only the minor portion of approximately 0.6 percent.

• KARḴEH RIVER

  Eckart Ehlers

  the third longest river in Iran after the rivers Karun and Safidrud, flowing in the western provinces of the country. It rises from the Zagros mountain range. 

• KARNĀ

  Stephen Blum

  designation of three types of musical instrument, the most prestigious being long trumpets made of brass, gold, silver, or other metals. Two regional instruments of Iran are also called karnā. Like the metal karnā, the long reed trumpet of Gilān and Māzandarān (also known as derāznāy “long reed”) lacks fingerholes and can produce only partials of the fundamental tone. 

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• KARRĀMIYA

  Aron Zysow

  he adherents to a theological and legal movement with a broad following in Khorasan and Afghanistan from the 10th to the 13th centuries, with its intellectual center in Nishapur (Nišāpur). 

• KARSĀSP

  Prods Oktor Skjærvø

  Avestan dragon-slayer, son of Sāma, and eschatological hero. In the Pahlavi and Zoroastrian Persian traditions, several heroic feats are connected with him.

• KARSĪVAZ

  Prods Oktor Skjærvø, Mahmoud Omidsalar

  in the old Iranian epic tradition the brother of the Turanian king, Afrāsiāb, and the man most responsible for the murder of the Iranian prince Siāvaš. 

• KARTIR

  Prods Oktor Skjærvø

  a prominent Zoroastrian priest  in the second half of the 3rd century CE, known from his inscriptions and mentioned in Middle Persian, Parthian, and Coptic Manichean texts.

• KARTLI

  George Sanikidze

  region occupying most of eastern Georgia. The original name of Georgia (Sakartvelo) and the Georgian people (Kartvelebi) derive from Kartli. 

• KARUN RIVER i. Geography and Hydrology, ii

  Habib Borjian

  the largest river and the only navigable waterway in Iran. It rises in the Baḵtiāri Zagros mountains west of Isfahan, flows out of the central Zagros range, traverses the Khuzestan plain, and joins the Shatt al-Arab. before the latter discharges into the Persian Gulf.

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• KARUN RIVER iii. The Opening of the Karun

  Shabaz Shahnavaz

  With the intensification of the Anglo-Russian rivalry in the late 1800s over Iran’s geopolitical position and commercial resources, Great Britain began to exert immense pressure on the shah’s government to provide it with access to the Karun trade route. 

• KĀŠĀNI, ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ KHAN

  Mangol Bayat

  18th-century governor of Kashan under the Zand dynasty. 

• KĀŠĀNI, SAYYED ABU’L-QĀSEM

  Ali Rahnema

  (1877-1962), the leading political cleric during the critical period of 1941-53. Until the departure of Reza Shah in 1941, Kāšāni stayed on the sidelines of domestic Iranian politics. The 21-year-old Mohammad Reza Shah ascended to his father’s throne on 16 September. On 8 October, Kāšāni voiced his grievances to Moḥammad ʿAli Foruḡi, the prime minister. In a letter, Kāšāni emphasized the necessity of applying the “divine laws.”

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• KĀŠEF ŠIRĀZI

  J. T . P. de Bruijn

  Persian writer on ethics and poet of the Safavid period (b. Karbalā, ca. 1592; d. Ray, ca. 1653). 

• KĀŠEF-AL-ḠEṬĀʾ, JAʿFAR

  Hamid Algar

  (1743-1812), Shiʿi scholar and jurist, broadly influential in both Iraq and Persia. His cognomen, meaning “remover of the veil,” alludes to one of his best known works.

• KĀŠEF-AL-ḠEṬĀʾ, MOḤAMMAD ḤOSAYN

  Hamid Algar

  (1877-1954), descendant of the great Shiʿite jurist of the early Qajar period, Sheikh Jaʿfar Kāšef-al-Ḡeṭāʾ, prodigious and versatile author, teacher, and lecturer.

• KĀŠEF-AL-SALṬANA

  Ranin Kazemi

  also known as Čāykār (tea planter), Qajar diplomat, reformer, author, constitutionalist, and promoter of tea cultivation (1865-1929)

• KĀŠEFI

  Osman G. Özgüdenlı

  (d. 15th century), author of the epic poem Ḡazā-nāma-ye Rum on the lives of the Ottoman sultans Morād II (r. 1421-44 and 1446-51) and Moḥammad II (r. 1444-46 and 1451-81).

• KĀŠEFI, KAMĀL-AL-DIN ḤOSAYN WĀʿEẒ

  M. E . Subtelny

  prolific prose-stylist of the Timurid era, religious scholar, Sufi figure, and influential preacher (b. Sabzavār, ca. 1436-37; d. Herat, 1504-5).

• KĀSEMI, NOṢRAT-ALLĀH

  Mostafa Alamouti and EIr.

  (1908-1996), physician, poet, writer, orator, and politician.

• KAŠF AL-ASRĀR

  Cross-reference

  wa ʿoddat al-abrār of Abu’l-Fażl Rašid-al-Dīn Meybodi. See MEYBODI. Forthcoming.

• KAŠF AL-LOḠĀT WA’L-EṢṬELĀḤĀT

  Solomon Bayevsky

  (Revealing [of the meaning] of words and terminology), title of a Persian dictionary compiled in India before 1608.

• KAŠF AL-MAḤJUB of Hojviri

  Jawid Mojaddedi

  the only surviving work of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli b. ʿOṯmān Hojviri (d. between 1073 and 1077) and the oldest surviving independent manual of Sufism written in Persian.

• KAŠF AL-MAḤJUB of Sejzi

  Hermann Landolt

  (“Unveiling the hidden”), the Persian version of an Ismaʿili treatise originally written in Arabic by the 10th century dāʾi. 

• KAŠF AL-ẒONUN

  Kioumars Ghereghlou

  (“Unveiling of suppositions”), a major bibliographical dictionary in Arabic, composed by Kāteb Čelebi Moṣṭafā b. ʿAbd-Allāh, also known as Ḥāji Ḵalifa (1609-57).

• KAŠF O ŠOHUD

  Cyrus Ali Zargar

  (“unveiling and witnessing”), terms commonly used by Muslim mystics to describe the acquisition of esoteric knowledge and the constant first-hand encountering of the divine presence. 

• KAŠF-E ḤEJĀB

  Cross-reference

  See VEILING AND UNVEILING. Forthcoming.

• KAŠFI, MIR MOḤAMMAD ṢĀLEḤ ḤOSAYNI

  Sunil Sharma

  (d. 1651), calligrapher and poet in Mughal India. 

• KĀŠḠARI, SAʿD-AL-DIN

  Hamid Algar

  (d. 1456), propagator of the Naqšbandi order in Timurid Herat, noteworthy primarily as the initiator ofʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Jāmi into the path.

• KASHAN

  Multiple Authors

  historical city and a sub-province of the province of Isfahan (q.v.) on the north-south axial route of central Iran (lat 33° 59ʹ 30ʹʹ N, long 51° 27ʹ 00ʹʹ E; elev. 950 m).

• KASHAN i. GEOGRAPHY

  Habibollah Zanjani and EIr.

  Covering an area of approximately 9,647 km2, the sub-province of Kashan is situated between the Karkas mountains on the west to the Central Desert on the east.

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• KASHAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

  Xavier de Planhol

  Geographic foundations and the origins of the urban area. To the northeast of the well-watered mountain ranges of western and southern Iran, a line of bountiful oases which have given rise to important urban areas stretches along the piedmont bordering the desert basins of central and southeastern Iran.

• KASHAN iii. HISTORY

  Forthcoming online.

• KASHAN iv. POPULATION

  Habibollah Zanjani

  Approximately 90 percent of the Kashan Sub-province population lives in the city of Kashan, so the demographic data for the sub-province closely resembles that of the city.

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• KASHAN v. ARCHITECTURE (1) URBAN DESIGN

  Mohammad- Reza Haeri and EIr.

  The city of Kashan, similar to other older Iranian cities, preserved its traditional architectural features and urban design into the early 20th century.

• KASHAN v. ARCHITECTURE (2) HISTORICAL MONUMENT

  Mohammad- Reza Haeri and EIr.

  This section briefly describes nine landmark monuments of Kashan.

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• KASHAN v. ARCHITECTURE (3) TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE

  Mohammad- Reza Haeri and EIr.

  In line with the trend towards modernization in Iran’s recent history, most residential houses built by the middle classes in Kashan since 1950 comprise all or some of the following units: entrance, courtyard, living room, reception room, kitchen, lavatory, bath, bedroom, storage, staircase, and hall.

• KASHAN v. ARCHITECTURE (4) HISTORIC MANSIONS

  EIr.

  The city of Kashan boasts at least nineteen historic mansions that are well preserved; they are presented in the first volume of the Ganjnameh devoted to these structures.

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• KASHAN vi. THE ESBANDI FESTIVAL

  Habib Borjian

  An elaborate festival held in the Kashan region on the eve of the month Esfand.

• KASHAN vii. KASHAN WARE

  Forthcoming online.

• KASHAN viii. RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES (1) JEWISH COMMUNITY

  Mehrdad Amanat

  This sub-entry is devided into two sections: (1) Jewish community. (2) Bahai community.

• KASHAN viii. RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES (2) BAHAI COMMUNITY

  Mehrdad Amanat

  Like many Bahai communities in Iran, Kashan Bahais can trace their roots to the early years of the Babi movement.

• KASHAN ix. THE MEDIAN DIALECTS OF KASHAN

  Habib Borjian

  This sub-entry is divided into two sections: (1) Rural Rāji dialects. (2) Urban Jewish dialect.

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• KASHAN ix. THE MEDIA DIALECTS OF KASHAN (2) URBAN JEWISH DIALECT

  Habib Borjian

  Kashan may be characterized as exclusively Persian speaking and Muslim from the time when the city was abandoned by its Jewry, who spoke a variety of Central dialects (q.v.).

• KASHGAR

  Pavel Lurje

  (Kāšḡar), town in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, in the westernmost extremity of the Tarim Basin.

• KASHMIR

  Multiple Authors

  This entry is divided into five articles: i. Introduction. ii. Persian language in Kashmir. iii. Persian language in the state administration. iv. Persian elements in Kashmiri. v. Persian influence on Kashmiri art.

• KASHMIR i. INTRODUCTION

  Siegfried Weber

  Iranian influence in and beyond the region of Kashmir is a long-term phenomenon.

• KASHMIR ii. PERSIAN LANGUAGE IN KASHMIR

  Siegfried Weber

  Persian was the basis of administrations all over western Asia and the highly prestigious language at the courts.

• KASHMIR iii. PERSIAN LANGUAGE IN THE STATE ADMINISTRATION

  Siegfried Weber

  Officially Persian became the court language in Kashmir during the 14th and 15th centuries.

• KASHMIR iv. Persian Elements in Kashmiri

  Omkar N. Koul

  This entry discusses the nature and extent of Persian influence on the Kashmiri language.

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• KASHMIR v. PERSIAN INFLUENCE ON KASHMIRI ART

  Mehrdad Shokoohy

  The Iranian influence on the art and architecture of Kashmir is indirect, appearing in ancient times via Hellenistic and Kushan culture and later through Muslim India. 

• KASHTARITI

  M. Dandamayev

  (kaš-ta-ri-ti, Old Iranian Khshathrita), a city lord of Karkashshi in the Central Zagros mountains. during the reign of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE).

• KĀŠI

  Cross-Reference

  and Kāšisāzi. See CERAMICS xiv. THE ISLAMIC PERIOD, 11TH-15TH CENTURIES.

• KĀŠI, ḠIĀṮ-AL-DIN

  George Saliba

  ḠIĀṮ-AL-DIN JAMŠID B. MASʿUD B. MOḤAMMAD (ca. 1386-1429), mathematician, astronomer, and scientific instrument-maker of the highest rank.

• KĀŠI, MUSĀ KHAN

  Houman Sarshar

  Jewish master of Persian classical music, teacher, and innovative kamānča (q.v.) player also known for his mellow singing voice.

• ḴAṢIBI

  Yaron Friedman

  (d. 969), founder of Noṣayrism.

• KAŠKUL

  an oval-shaped bowl carried by dervishes. Forthcoming online.

• KAŠKUL-E ŠAYḴ BAHĀʾI

  Devin J. Stewart

  the title of a large literary anthology compiled by Shaikh Bahāʾ-al-Din Moḥammad ʿĀmeli (q.v.), commonly known as Shaikh Bahāʾi, the gifted polymath and leading jurist of the Safavid empire during most of the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1587-1629, q.v.)

• KAŠKULI BOZORG

  Pierre Oberling

  one of the five major tribes of the Qashqāʾi (Qašqāʾi) tribal confederacy of Fārs province.

• KASMĀʾI, MIRZĀ ḤOSAYN

  Pezhmann Dailami

  (1862-1921), a constitutionalist active in the revolutionary movement in Gilan (1915-20).

• KAŠMIRI, BADR-AL-DIN

  Devin Deweese

  a prolific writer active in Central Asia during the second half of the 16th century; he was closely linked with the eminent Juybāri shaikhs of Boḵārā.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD

  Multiple Authors

  influential social thinker, prominent historian, a pioneer of Iran’s linguistic studies, well-known social and religious reformer with a sense of prophetic mission, and prolific author.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD i. LIFE AND WORK

  Ali Reżā Manafzadeh

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD ii. ASSASSINATION

  Moḥammad Amini

  The surge in activities of Islamic groups and the intensification of the rhetoric of mullahs at mosques coincided with the escalation and sharpening of Kasravi’s criticism of the foundation of Shiʿite concepts and values.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD iii. AS HISTORIAN

  Alireza Manafzadeh

  At the time when Kasravi began to write history, most historical research in Iran was carried out within the framework of political historiography with a nationalist purpose.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD iv. AS LINGUIST

  Forthcoming online.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD v. AS SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORMER

  Mohammad Amini

  Kasravi founded the “Society of Free Men” (Bāhamād-e āzādegān), announced his call for pākdini (pure faith)—born out of his sense of prophetic mission—and became the most outspoken intellectual against religious superstition and illusion. 

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD vi. ON MYSTICISM AND PERSIAN SUFI POETRY

  Lloyd Ridgeon

  By the turn of the 20th century the Sufi tradition in Iran no longer enjoyed the popularity and following that it attracted in previous centuries.

• KASRAVI, AḤMAD vii. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SURVEY

  EIr. and M. Amini

  Aḥmad Kasravi was a prolific writer. From the age of 25, when he began to write in Tabriz in 1915, until his assassination 30 years later in 1946.

• KASRA’I, HOSAYN SIAVASH

  Hušang Ettehād

  (1939-2003), painter.

• KASRA’I, Siavash

  Kāmyār ʿĀbedi

  (1926-1996), Marxist poet and political activist.

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• ḴĀṢṢ BEG

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  ARSLĀN B. PALANG-ERI, Turkish ḡolām (q.v.) who became the ḥājeb “chamberlain” and court favorite of the Great Saljuq Sultan Masʿud b. Moḥammad b. Malek Šāh (r. 1134-52).

• ḴĀṢṢ O ʿĀM

  Cross-Reference

  See CLASS SYSTEM iv. MEDIEVAL PERIOD.

• ḴĀṢṢA

  Willem Floor

  an Arabic term that in the early Muslim period as well as later denoted people and things that were “special, elite, private” as against those that were “public, common, general” (ʿāmma; Morony, p. 258; see CLASS SYSTEM iv).

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• KAŠŠI, ABU ʿAMR MOḤAMMAD

  Liyakat Takim

  an Imami traditionist and an important figure in Shiʿite biographical literature (rejāl).

• KASSITES

  Ran Zadok

  a people who probably originated in the Zagros and who ruled Babylonia in the 16th-12th centuries BCE.

• KATA

  Etrat Elahi

  a popular dish of simmered rice.

• ḴĀTUN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  a title of high-born women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds.

• KAVIR

  Cross-Reference

  Persian word meaning "desert." See DESERT.

• KAWĀD I

  Nikolaus Schindel

  ii. COINAGE Since the reign of Jāmāsp interrupts the two regnal periods of Kawād I, and because of marked differences between the two, they should be treated separately. Kawād employs only one obverse and one reverse type during his first reign. The obverse shows the king’s bust to the right wearing a crown consisting of a crescent and two mural elements, which corresponds to the second crown of Pērōz (457-84).

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• KAY ḴOSROW KHAN

  Hirotake Maeda

  (1674-1711), Georgian royal prince of the Kartlian branch, also known as Ḵosrow Khan.

• ḴAYĀL, Mir Moḥammad-Taqi

  Mohammad Sohayb Arshad

  (d. 1759), Indian author of the Persian dāstān titled Bostān-e Ḵayāl.

• KAYKĀVUS B. ESKANDAR

  J.T.P. de Bruijn

  author of a famous Mirror for Princes, best known as the Qābus-nāma, although other, more general titles such as Naṣiḥat-nāma, or Pand-nāma, also occur in the sources. 

• ḴAYRḴᵛĀH HERĀTI

  Farhad Daftary

  Nezāri Ismaʿili dāʿi, author, and poet (15th-16th centuries).

• KĀẒEM RAŠTI

  Hormoz Ebrahimnejad

  one of the high-ranking traditional physicians in 19th-century Iran.

• KĀẒEMI, ḤOSAYN

  Vida Nassehi-Behnam

  (1924-1996), painter. He was part of a group of painters who started a modern movement in painting in Persia. They opened the first art gallery, Apādānā, in Tehran (1949) where they offered courses in painting and organized lectures and exhibitions. It became also a meeting place for artists and intellectuals.

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• ḴAZINADĀR

  Willem Floor

  title of the royal treasurer since the early Islamic period.

• KĒD

  NICHOLAS SIMS-WILLIAMS

  Pahlavi and Bactrian word with meanings ranging from “soothsayer” to “priest,” probably derived from OIran.

• KELĀRDAŠT

  Cross-reference

  (or Kalārdašt), see KALĀRESTĀQ.

• ḴELʿAT

  Willem Floor

  (Ar. ḵelʿa, pl. ḵelaʿ), term used in Iran, India, Central Asia for gifts, but in particular a robe of honor.

• KELIDAR

  Mohammad Reza Ghanoonparvar

  (1978-1984), a monumental novel of nearly three thousand pages in five volumes consisting of ten books by Maḥmud Dawlatābādi (b. 1940), the noted novelist.

• KÉPES, GÉZA

  Andr

  (1909-1989), Hungarian poet and translator of Persian poetry.

• KERIYA

  Alain Cariou

  (Chin. name Yutian), city and county in the southern Tarim basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.  

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• ḴERQA

  Erik S. Ohlander

  term for the tattered cloak, robe, or overshirt traditionally worn by the Sufis as a symbol of wayfaring on the mystical path.

• KEŠ

  Pavel Lurje

  (Kešš, Kašš), an important ancient and medieval city, located in the upper Kaškā-daryā valley, now Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan.

• Kesāʾi Marvazi

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  (also vocalized Kasāʾi), 10th-century Persian poet.

• KETĀB AL-FOTUḤ

  ELTON L. DANIEL

  an important early Arabic historical text by Ebn Aʿṯam Kufi (d. 314/926?), which was translated, at least in part, into Persian towards the end of the 6th/12th century.

• KETĀB-E IQĀN

  Sholeh Quinn and Stephen N. Lambden

  a major work of Mirzā Ḥosayn-ʿAli Nuri Bahāʾ-Allāh (d. 1892) in defense of the religious claims of Sayyed ʿAli-Moḥammad the Bāb.

• ḴEṬĀY-NĀMA

  RALPH KAUZ

  “Book on China,” written by Seyyed ʿAlī Akbar Ḵeṭāʾī (q.v.) in Istanbul.

• KEYVĀNLU TRIBE

  Pierre Oberling

  a Kudish tribe of Khorasan.

• ḴEZR

  Anna Krasnowolska

  a prophet known to Islamic written tradition and folklore, whose worship in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia is connected with local calendar beliefs and fertility cults.

• KHACHIKIAN, Samuel

  Jamsheed Akrami

  (Sāmuʾel Ḵāčikiān), Iranian filmmaker (b. 20 October 1923, Tabriz; d. 21 October 2001, Tehran).

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• KHADEMI, Ali Mohammad

  Chapour Rassekh

  (1913-1978), Air Force officer, first general manager of Iran Air 1962-78.

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• KHAKSAR, Mansur

  Khosrow Davami

  poet, writer, editor and political activist. Khaksar completed his primary and secondary education in Abadan, and had two eminent Persian poets, Maḥmud Mošref Tehrāni and Ḥassan Pastā, as his teachers in the last two years of high school. In 1959, his first poem was published in Omid-e Irān, a noted weekly journal published by Moḥammad Āṣemi in Tehran.

• KHALAJ

  Multiple Authors

  i. Tribe Originating in Turkistan.  ii. Language.

• KHALAJ i. TRIBE ORIGINATING IN TURKISTAN

  Pierre Oberling

  tribe originating from Turkistan, generally referred to as Turks but possibly Indo-Iranian.

• KHALAJ ii. Language

  Michael Knüppel

  spoken by the inhabitants of Khalaj, located approximately 250 km to the southwest of Tehran.

• KHALCHAYAN

  Lolita Nehru

  in Surxondaryo prov., southern Uzbekistan, site of a settlement and palace of the nomad Yuezhi, with paintings and sculptures of the mid-1st century BCE. The Yuezhi, and perhaps other nomad groups, overthrew the Hellenistic Greek dynasty which had ruled there since the mid-3rd century as successor to the post-Achaemenid governments of Alexander and the Seleucids.

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• KHALILI, Abbas

  Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

  (1895-1971), political activist, journalist, translator, poet, and novelist.

• KHARG ISLAND

  D.T. Potts

  island in the Persian Gulf, situated at about 30 km northwest of Bandar-e Rig and 52 km northwest of Bušehr.

• KHARIJITES IN PERSIA

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  sect of early Islam which arose out of the conflict between ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (r. 656-61) and Moʿāwiya b. Abi Sufyān (r. 661-80).

• KHATTABIYYA

  Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

  (al-Ḵaṭṭābiya), an extremist Shiʿite sect named after Abu’l-Ḵaṭṭāb al-Asadi (killed ca. 755) who for some time was an authorized representative of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq (d. ca. 765) in Kufa.

• KHAYYAM, OMAR ix. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF OMAR KHAYYAM’S RUBAIYAT

  William H. Martin and Sandra Mason

  The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam contain some of the best-known verses in the world. The book is also one of the most frequently and widely illustrated of all literary works. The stimulus to illustrate Khayyam’s Rubaiyat came initially from outside Persia, in response to translations in the West.

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• KHAYYAM, OMAR x. MUSICAL WORKS BASED ON THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

  William H. Martin and Sandra Mason

  The enduring popularity of the verses in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is reflected in the large number of musical works they have inspired.

• KHAYYAM, OMAR xi. IMPACT ON THE LITERARY AND SOCIAL SCENE ABROAD

  Jos Biegstraaten

• KHORASAN i. ETHNIC GROUPS

  Pierre Oberling

  The population of Khorasan is extremely varied, consisting principally of Persians, Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Mongols, Baluch, and smaller groups of Jews, Gypsies, and Lors.

• KHORASANI

  Cross-Reference

  See AḴŪND MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD-KĀẒEM ḴORĀSĀNĪ.

• KHORESH

  Etrat Elahi

  (ḵoreš or ḵorešt), common dish consisting of pieces of meat fried with chopped onion, herbs or vegetables, and other ingredients.

• KHOTAN

  Multiple Authors

  town (lat 37°06′ N, long 79°56′ E) and major oasis of the southern Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

• KHOTAN ii. HISTORY IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

  Hiroshi Kumamoto

  ancient Buddhist oasis/kingdom on the branch of the Silk Road along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim basin, in present-day Xinjiang, China.

• KHOTAN iv. KHOTANESE LITERATURE

  Mauro Maggi

  the body of writings contained in a large number of manuscripts and manuscript folios and fragments written from the 5th to the 10th century in the Khotanese language, the Eastern Middle Iranian language of the Buddhist Saka kingdom of Khotan on the southern branch of the Silk Route (in the present-day Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China).

• KHUJAND

  Keith Hitchins

  (Ḵojand), city in northwestern Tajikistan on the middle course of the Syr Daryā River, about 150 km south of Tashkent and near the entrance to the Farḡāna valley.

• KHWARAZMSHAHS i. Descendants of the line of Anuštigin

  Clifford Edmund Bosworth

  After the Saljuq takeover in Khwarazm in the early 1040s, the Saljuq Sultans appointed various governors in the province, including several Turkish ḡolām commanders.

• KIĀNI, Sayyed NĀDERŠĀH

  S. J. Badakhchani

  (d. 1970), Ismaʿili poet and writer of Afghanistan.

• KIDARITES

  Frantz Grenet

  a dynasty which ruled Tukharistan and later Gandhāra, probably also part of Sogdiana; the initial date is disputed (ca 390 CE for some modern authors, ca. 420-430 for others).

• KILIZU

  Antonio Invernizzi

  capital of the Assyrian province of the same name, near the mound Qaṣr Šemāmok in northern Mesopotamia, where a Parthian necropolis was brought to light.

• KIMIĀ

  Pierre Lory

  “Alchemy.” Externally, the purpose of alchemy was the conversion of base metals like lead into silver or gold by means of long and complicated operations leading to the production of a mysterious substance, the ‘philosopher’s stone,’ able to operate the transmutation. 

• KING OF THE BENIGHTED

  NASRIN RAHIMIEH & DANIEL RAFINEJAD

  a novella by the writer and literary critic Hushang Golshiri 

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• KIRSTE, Johann Ferdinand Otto

  Michaela Zinko

  (1851-1920), Austrian scholar of Indo-Iranian languages. He served from 1892 until his death as professor of Oriental languages at the University of Graz.

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• KISH ISLAND

  D. T. Potts

  (Ar. Qeys), small island in the lower Persian Gulf, noted for its palm gardens.

• KOBRAWIYA i. THE EPONYM

  Hamid Algar

  Abu’l-Jannāb Aḥmad b.ʿOmar Najm-al-Din Kobrā, eponym of the Kobrawiya, was born in Ḵᵛārazm in 1145 or possibly a decade later.

• KOBRAWIYA ii. THE ORDER

  Hamid Algar

  The crystallization of a given line of Sufi tradition as an “order” should not be understood as imposing on all the spiritual descendants of the eponym a definitive and permanently binding choice of methods and emphases.

• KOFRI, Moḥammad Kermānšāhi

  Shireen Mahdavi

  (1829-1908), physician and surgeon.

• KOH-I-NOOR

  Iradj Amini

  (Kuh-e Nur; lit. “Mountain of Light”), the most celebrated diamond in the world, with rich legendary and historical associations.

• ḴOJESTĀNI, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd-Allāh

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (d. 882), commander of the Taherids in Khorasan, and after the Ṣaffarid occupation of Nishapur in 873, a contender for power.

• KOLAYNI

  Etan Kohlberg

  , Abu Jaʿfar Moḥammad b. Yaʿqub b. Esḥāq Rāzi (d. 941), prominent Imami traditionist.

• KOLUKJĀNLU

  Pierre Oberling

  a Kurdish tribe in the Ḵalḵāl region of eastern Azerbaijan.

• KONDORI, MOḤAMMED B. MANṢUR

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (b. ca. 1024, d. 1064), vizier to Ṭoḡrel Beg (r. 1040-63), the first sultan of the Great Saljuqs, and, briefly, to Ṭoḡrel’s successor Alp Arslān (r. 1063-72).

• KONOW, STEN

  Fridrik Thordarson

  (1867–1948), Norwegian orientalist,  an all-around Indologist, whose extensive scholarly work covers most branches of Indian studies.

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• KORA-SONNI

  Pierre Oberling

  a tribe in western Persian Azerbaijan.

• KORK

  Rudi Matthee

  soft wool, also called Kermān wool, used for the manufacture of fine clothing and felt hats.

• KÖROĞLU i. LITERARY TRADITION

  Hasan Javadi

  early-17th-century folk hero and poet, whose stories are mainly known among the Turkic peoples but have also passed into other folk literatures and circulate in Azerbaijan and Khorasan. Bards usually perform the Köroǧlu/Goroḡli epic to the accompaniment of a string instrument, such as the sāz, the dambura, or the dutār.

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• KÖROĞLU ii. PERFORMANCE ASPECTS

  Ameneh Youssefzadeh

  Bards usually perform the Köroǧlu/Goroḡli epic to the accompaniment of a string instrument, such as the sāz, the dambura, or the dutār.

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• ḴORRAMIS

  Patricia Crone

  adherents of a form of Iranian religion often identified as a survival or revival of the Zoroastrian heresy, Mazdakism.

• ḴORRAMIS IN BYZANTIUM

  Evangelos Venetis

  Iranians who fought the ʿAbbasid caliph Moʿtaṣem be’llāh (r. 833-41) and enrolled in the Byzantine army of the iconoclast emperor Theophilos I (r. 829-42).

• ḴOSROW I i. LIFE AND TIMES

  Multiple Authors

  Sasanian king (r. 531-579). i. Life and Times (forthcoming).

• ḴOSROW I ii. Reforms

  Zeev Rubin

  a series of reforms in Sasanian taxation and military organization, probably initiated already under Kawāḏ I.

• ḴOSROW I iii. COINAGE

  Nikolaus Schindel

  The reign of Ḵosrow I (531-79) is generally regarded as the heyday of the Sasanian empire, but his coinage marks the nadir of Sasanian coin art. The most noteworthy features are innovations in reverse typology. In the first type, the assistant figures are shown frontally, a totally new depiction; and they hold what appears to be a spear, an attribute encountered previously under Wahrām II (276-93).

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• ḴOSROW II

  James Howard-Johnston

  the last great king of the Sasanian dynasty (590-628) in the last few decades before the coming of Islam. The principal extant history of the period, written in Armenia in the early 650s, was appropriately entitled The History of Khosrow.

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• ḴOSROW KHAN GORJI QĀJĀR

  Hirotake Maeda

  (1785/86-1857), an influential eunuch (Ḵᵛāja) of the Qajar era, who lived in the period spanning the reigns Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah (r. 1797-1834) to Nāṣer-al-Din Shah (r. 1848-96).

• ḴOSROW O ŠIRIN

  Paola Orsatti

  the second poem of Neẓāmi’s Ḵamsa, recounting the amorous relationship between the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II Parviz (r. 590-628 CE), and the beautiful princess Širin.

• ḴOTTAL

  Clifford Edmund Bosworth

  a province of medieval Islamic times on the right bank of the upper Oxus river in modern Tajikistan. A region of lush pastures, Ḵottal was famed for horse-breeding.

• KRÁMSKÝ, JIRÍ

  Jiri Bečka

  (1913-1991), Czech general linguist who specialized in Persian language studies.

• Krikavová, Adéla

  Jiri Bečka

  (1938-2002), Czech scholar of Iranian and particularly Kurdish studies.

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• KRYMSKIĬ, Agfangel Efimovich

  Natalia Chalisova

  (1871-1942) Ukrainian orientalist, author of over 1,000 works on the history and culture of Iran, Arab countries, Turkey, the Khanate of the Crimea, and Azerbaijan.

• KUFTA

  Etrat Elahi

  popular Persian dish usually made of ground lamb or beef, and more recently, ground chicken or turkey in a mixture of herbs, spices, or other ingredients.

• KUKADARU, JAMSHEDJI SORAB

  Michael Stausberg and Ramiyar P. Karanjia

  (1831-1900), Parsi Zoroastrian priest. He was renowned for his spiritual powers, in particular with respect to healing and divination.

• KULĀB

  Habib Borjian

  or Kōlāb, city and former province (the greater part of medieval Ḵottal[ān]) of Tajikistan.

• KURDISH LANGUAGE i. HISTORY OF THE KURDISH LANGUAGE

  Ludwig Paul

• KURDISH LANGUAGE ii. HISTORY OF KURDISH STUDIES

  Joyce Blau

  The article provides a brief account of Kurdish studies, which is a relatively recent academic field. The earliest studies of the Kurdish language and civilization were carried out by missionaries.

• KURDISH TRIBES

  Pierre Oberling

  Kurdish tribes are found throughout Persia, eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq, but very few comprehensive lists of them have been published.

• KURDISH WRITTEN LITERATURE

  Philip G. Kreyenbroek

  Written, “elevated” poetry traditionally played a less prominent role in Kurdish society than folk poetry (q.v.) did. The number of written literary works in Kurdish is far smaller than in the surrounding cultures.

• KURDOEV, QENĀTĒ

  Joyce Blau

  (1909-1985), Kurdish philologist and university professor.

• KURGAN TEPE

  Habib Borjian

  (Qūrḡonteppa in Tajik orthography; Kurgan-Tyube in Russian), provincial capital and former province of Tajikistan.

• KURUNI

  Pierre Oberling

  a Kurdish tribe of Kurdistan and Fārs. Most of the tribe was transplanted from Kurdistan to Fārs by Karim Khan Zand during the 1760s.

• KUŠ-NĀMA

  Jalal Matini

  part of a mythical history of Iran written between 1108 and 1111, dealing with the eventful life of Kuš the Tusked.

• KUSA

  Anna Krasnowolska

  a carnival character known to the medieval and modern folklore of central and western Persia.

• KUSHAN DYNASTY i. Dynastic History

  A. D. H. Bivar

  During the first to mid-third centuries CE, the empire of the Kushans (Mid. Pers. Kušān-šahr) represented a major world power in Central Asia and northern India.

• ḴᵛĀJAVAND

  Pierre Oberling

  a Kurdish tribe in the Caspian province of Māzandarān. According to L. S. Fortescue, the tribe “was originally brought from Garrūs and Kurdistān by Nādir Shāh.”

• ḴᵛĀJAZĀDA ASʿAD EFENDI

  Tahsin Yazıcı

  (1570-1625), Ottoman šayḵ-al-Eslām, poet, and translator of Saʿdi’s Golestān.

• ḴᵛĀJU KERMĀNI

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  (1290-ca. 1349), Persian poet and mystic. Ḵᵛāju was undoubtedly a versatile poet of great inventiveness and originality.

• ḴᵛĀNSĀLĀR

  Willem Floor

  title by which the supervisor and other workers of the kitchen department of the royal palace were known in the Ghaznavid and Saljuq periods.