Table of Contents

  • KĀṮ

    Habib Borjian

    the old capital of Chorasmia, situated by the Oxus/Āmu Daryā river. Kāṯ owes both its glory and demise to the Oxus, an unending source of sustenance as well as destruction in human history.

  • KATA

    Etrat Elahi and EIr

    a simple, everyday rice dish characteristic for the Caspian provinces, Gilan and Mazanderan.

  • KATĀYUN

    Mahnaz Moazami

    a mythological figure in the Šāh-nāma and in the Bundahišn. In the Šāh-nāma, Katāyun is the daughter of the emperor of Rum who marries Goštāsp while he is in exile.

  • KĀTEB

    Cross-Reference

    "secretary, scribe." See DABIR.

  • ḴAṬIB

    Cross-Reference

    See ḴOṬBA, EMĀM-E JOMʿA.

  • ḴAṬIB ROSTAM DEDE

    Osman G. Özgüdenli

    Ottoman Sufi, writer, and poet, author of the Wasila al-maqāṣed elā aḥsan al-marāṣed, a Persian-Turkish dictionary.

  • KATIBA

    Cross-Reference

    "inscription." See CALLIGRAPHY.

  • KAṮĪR DYNASTY

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀL-E KAṮĪR.

  • KATIRĀ

    Amir Kiumarsi and Bahram Grami

    (gum tragacanth), a plant exudate widely used as a natural emulsifier and thickener by the food, drug, and other industries. It is also called ṣamḡ-e qannād.

  • ḴATM AL-ḠARĀʾEB

    Anna Livia Beelaert

    the only maṯnawi written by the poet Ḵāqāni Šervāni; its final version dates from 552/1157. 

  • ḴAṬMI

    Ahmad Aryavand and Bahram Grami

    (or ḵeṭmi), “marshmallow,” Althaea officinalis L. of the family Malvaceae (the mallow family), an important pharmaceutical plant.

  • ḴATNA

    Cross-reference

    See CIRCUMCISION.

  • KATPATUKA

    Cross-reference

    See CAPPADOCIA.

  • ḴAṬṬ-E FĀRSI

    Cross-reference

    See IRAN vi. IRANIAN LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS. (3) WRITING SYSTEMS.

  • ḴAṬṬ-E MIḴI

    Cross-reference

    See CUNEIFORM SCRIPT.

  • ḴAṬṬĀBIYA

    Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

    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.

  • ḴATTĀʾI, ʿALI-AKBAR

    Cross-reference

    See ḴETTĀʾI, ʿALI-AKBAR (pending).

  • KATTĀN

    Cross-reference

    See LINEN (pending).

  • ḴAṬṬĀTI

    Cross-reference

    See CALLIGRAPHY.

  • ḴĀTUN

    C. Edmund Bosworth

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

  • ḴĀTUNĀBĀDI, MIR ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN

    Kioumars Ghereghlou

    (1630-94), Persian historian and author of the chronicle Waqāyeʿ al-senin wa’l-aʿwām.

  • ḴĀTUNI, ABU ṬĀHER

    cross-reference

    See ABU ṬĀHER ḴĀTUNI.

  • KĀVA

    Mahmud Omidsalar

    the name of a heroic blacksmith in the Šāhnāma who rebels against the tyrant Żaḥḥāk and helps Ferēdun wrest the kingdom from him.

  • KĀVA NEWSPAPER

    Iraj Afšār

    In this period, Germany, with no apparent interests in Iran, was favored by nationalist Iranians, who believed that it was the one that could free Iran from the political and economic domination of Great Britain and Russia.  The name of the paper recalled Kāva, the legendary hero who rose against Żaḥḥāk, the bloodthirsty tyrant.

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  • ḴĀVARĀN-NĀMA

    Multiple Authors

    a Persian religious epic poem composed by Ebn Ḥosām Ḵᵛāfi or Ḵusfi.

  • ḴĀVARĀN-NĀMA i. The Epic Poem

    Julia Rubanovich

    (ḴĀVAR-NĀMA) a Persian religious epic poem composed by Ebn Ḥosām Ḵᵛāfi or Ḵusfi.

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  • ḴĀVARĀN-NĀMA ii. The Illustrated Manuscripts

    Raya Shani

    illustrated manuscripts of Ḵāvarān-nāma from Iran, Turkey, and India

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  • ḴĀVARI KĀŠĀNI

    Mehrdad Amanat

    preacher, poet, journalist, and constitutional activist. Ḵāvari learned the fundamentals of traditional learning from his preacher father, Sayyed Hāšem Wāʿeẓ.

  • KAVI

    cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • ḴĀVIĀR

    Cross-reference

    See CAVIAR.

  • KAVIR

    Cross-Reference

    Persian word meaning "desert." See DESERT.

  • KĀVUS

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAWĀD I

    Nikolaus Schindel

    Sasanian king, son of Pērōz I. This entry is divided into two sections:  i. Reign. ii. Coinage.

  • KAWĀD I i. Reign

    Nikolaus Schindel

    The reign of Kawād I, lasting with an interruption of some three years from 488 to 531, is a turning point in Sasanian history.

  • KAWĀD I ii. Coinage

    Nikolaus Schindel

    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. 

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  • KAWĀD II

    Cross-Reference

    Sasanian king (r. 628), son of  ḴOSROW II.   See ŠIRUYA (entry pending).

  • ḴAWARNAQ

    Renate Würsch

    a medieval castle built in the vicinity of the ancient city of al-Ḥira by Lamid rulers of Iraq to whose name frequent references has been made in pre-modern Persian literary works.

  • KAY

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAY KĀVUS

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAY ḴOSROW

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAY-ḴOSROW KHAN

    Hirotake Maeda

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

  • KAY QOBĀD

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • ḴAYĀL, Mir Moḥammad-Taqi

    Mohammad Sohayb Arshad

    (d. 1759), Indian author of a collection of historical and fictitious stories composed in Persian in fifteen volumes over fourteen years and titled Bustān-e ḵayāl.

  • KAYĀNIĀN

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    (Kayanids), in the early Persian epic tradition a dynasty that ruled Iran before the Achaemenids, all of whom bore names prefixed by Kay from Avestan kauui.

  • KAYĀNIĀN i. Kavi: Avestan kauui, Pahlavi kay

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    Kavi is the Indo-Iranian term for “(visionary) poet.”  The term may be older than Indo-Iranian, if Lydian kaveś and the Samothracean title cited by Hesychius as koíēs or kóēs are related.

  • KAYĀNIĀN ii. The Kayanids as a Group

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    References to the kauuis in the Avesta are found in the yašts in the lists of heroes who sacrificed to various deities for certain rewards.

  • KAYĀNIĀN iii. Kauui Kauuāta, Kay Kawād, Kay Kobād (Qobād)

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    Kauui Kauuāta has no epithets in the Avesta to describe him, and the descriptions in the Pahlavi sources are mostly vague. His seed is from the xwarrah; he was the first to establish kingship in Iran; he was godfearing and a good ruler. According to a notice in the Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, he may have married Wan, daughter of Gulaxš.

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  • KAYĀNIĀN iv. “Minor” Kayanids

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    The Avesta contains no information on Aipi.vahu, Aršan, Pisinah, and Biiaršan, but, according to the Pahlavi tradition, Abīweh was the son of Kawād and the father of Arš, Biyarš (spelled <byʾlš>), Pisīn, and Kāyus.

  • KAYĀNIĀN v. Kauui Usan, Kay-Us, Kay Kāvus

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    The story of Kay Us’s madness is found in two versions. According to the Bundahišn, his mind was disturbed so that he tried to go up and do battle with the sky, but he fell down and the xwarrah was stolen from him; he devastated the world with his army, until they caught and bound him by deception in the land of Šambarān.

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  • KAYĀNIĀN vi. Siiāuuaršan, Siyāwaxš, Siāvaš

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    Siiāuuaršan, “the one with black stallions,” is listed in the Avesta in Yašt 13.132 as a kauui and the third with a name containing aršan “male.”