Table of Contents

• KIĀ, ṢĀDEQ

  Habib Borjian

  educator, lexicologist, and the director of the second Persian Language Academy (Farhangestān-e zabān-e Irān). 

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• KIĀNI, Sayyed NĀDERŠĀH

  S. J. Badakhchani

  (d. 1970), 20th century Ismaʿili poet and writer of Afghanistan, born in Kulāb, southwestern Tajikistan. 

• 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, first appeared in an English translation by Abbas Milani (Washington D. C., 1990), with the pseudonym Manuchehr Irani listed as its author.

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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, the son of Pir Moḥammad Zāreʿ, a merchant.

• 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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