Table of Contents

  • ḴAMSA TRIBE

    Pierre Oberling

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

  • 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.

  • ḴĀN-E ĀREZU, Serāj-al-din ʿAli (Article 1)

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀRZU.

  • Ḵān-e Ārezu, Serāj-al-din ʿAli (ARTICLE 2)

    Prashant Keshavmurthy

    (1688-1756), a Persian-language philologist, lexicographer, literary critic and poet from North India.

  • ḴĀN-E ḴĀNĀN

    Cross-Reference

    (d. 1627), Mughal general and statesman. See ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM ḴĀN ḴĀNĀN.

  • ḴĀNĀ QOBĀDI

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Parwin Mahmoudweyssi

    (fl. ca.1700-1759 or 1778), Gurāni poet and one of the major members of the school of Gurāni poetry that is said to have been founded by Yusof Yaskā.

  • ḴĀNA-YE EDRISIHĀ

    SOHEILA SAREMI

    Ḵāna-ye Edrisihā is told from the alternating perspectives of four people: Mrs. Edrisi, symbol of a lost aristocracy; her daughter Laqā, trapped in a tangled web of old beliefs, traditions, and customs; her intellectual grandson Vahhāb, living a miserable life in an ocean of books; and Yāvar, the faithful servant, living in past memories.

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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

    the second most important city in the country and the capital of Kandahar province. This entry is divided into seven parts: i. Historical geography to 1979.  ii. Pre-Islamic monuments and remains. iii. Early Islamic period.  iv. From the Mongol invasion through the Safavid era.  v. In the 19th century.  vi. 20th century, 1901-73.  vii. From 1973 to the present.

  • KANDAHAR i. Historical Geography to 1979

    Xavier de Planhol

    The oasis clearly was destined to give rise to a major city that would control these rich lands with their grain fields, orchards, and gardens and manage the irrigation system they required. This urban center was situated near the top of the alluvial cone, where the Arḡandāb river runs from the mountains.

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  • KANDAHAR ii. Pre-Islamic Monuments and Remains

    Gérard Fussman

    The ancient city of Kandahar lay along the Qaytul ridge, west of the modern city and was emptied of its population by Nāder Shah in 1738.

  • KANDAHAR iii. Early Islamic Period

    Minoru Inaba

    Kandahar and its surroundings have been an important junction connecting Iran and India since ancient times.

  • 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). Kandahar expanded substantially during the second half of the 20th century by attracting rural labor and by developing new residential quarters (šahr-e naw) and public buildings. 

  • KANDAHAR vii. From 1973 to the Present

    Antonio Giustozzi

    Mohammad Daoud Khan took power in July 1973, his ban on party political activities hit Kandahar too.

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

    Rudi Matthee and Hiroyuki Mashita

    There are various reasons why, despite the manifest weaknesses of the Safavid army, Kandahar surrendered to the Safavids.

  • ḴANDAQ

    Michael G. Morony

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

  • KANGA, MANECK FARDOONJI

    Firoze M. Kotwal and Jamsheed K. Choksy

    (1908-1988), Parsi scholar of Zoroastrianism and Iranian languages. He held the position of Secretary of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute in Bombay for 15 years and edited its Journal. He served as Professor of Avestan Studies at the University of Bombay. 

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  • 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. There are different and often contradictory descriptions of Kang, Kangdež and several similar place names in Pahlavi literature and the epics of the Islamic period.

  • 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.

  • ḴANJAR BEG, Mirzā

    Zeyaul Haque

    (d. 1567), a poet and scholar of sixteenth-century Mughal India, who attained a significant place in the history of Indo-Persian poetry due to his famous maṯnawi.

  • ḴĀNOM

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    a title for highborn women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds. In early Islamic Turkish, it was used for a khan’s wife or a princess, hence as a higher title than begüm.

  • 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.

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  • 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

    Shirvanlu, rightly convinced that the few already known children’s writers were not the sole answer to Kanun’s children’s book project, approached many writers of adult literature—novelists, translators, dramatists, essayists in social sciences, and scholars in humanities—and invited them to try their hand in this new field.

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

    Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

    Many world-renowned  artists and masters were invited to to participate as International Jury members for the festivals.

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  • 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.

  • 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. All internationally recognized Iranian animation film directors started their work at Kanun, and many have continued to cooperate with it.

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

    Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

    In less than eight years, the Center for the Production of Records and Cassettes for Children and Young Adults produced five collections of quality recordings.

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

    Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

    The Visual Arts Training Center became a real entity long after each artistic training program was created and was in operation.

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

    Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam

    Aḥmad-Reżā Aḥmadi, avant-garde poet, started as a writer for Kanun. He was appointed as manager of the sound recording production section at the behest of Kanun’s managing director in 1970.

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  • KAPADIA, DINSHAH DORABJI

    Burzine K. Waghmar

    Parsi scholar and educator. He was promoted in 1919 as a commissioner of the Indian Educational Service and taught mathematics in Poona and Bombay.

  • KAPISA

    Cross-Reference

    (Kāpiśa), the ancient region of Kabul. See BEGRAM.

  • 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). Ḵāqāni’s fame rests on his qaṣidas, of which, in Żiāʾ-al-Din Sajjādi’s edition, there are one hundred and thirty-two.

  • KĀR KIĀ

    Yukako Goto

    or Kiā, a Zaydi family from the eastern flank (Bia-piš) of Gilān, as well as the local dynasty founded by this family that dominated East Gilān and Deylamestān from the 770s/1370s to 1000/1592.

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  • 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. 

  • KARABALGASUN

    Toshio Hayashi, Y. Yoshida

    or Khar Balgas “Black ruined city” in Mongolian. This entry consists of two sections: i. The site  ii. The inscription.

  • 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 is located in the Orkhon valley, 320 km west of Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar), 30 km north of Karakorum.

  • KARABALGASUN ii. The Inscription

    Y. Yoshida

    The trilingual inscription at Karabalgasun, in Old Turkic, Sogdian, and Chinese, of the eighth Uighur qaghan in Mongolia commemorates the qaghan’s (Old Turkic ḵaḡan, qaḡan) own military achievements and those of his predecessors.

  • 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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  • KARĀʾI

    P. Oberling

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

  • KARAJ

    Multiple Authors

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