Table of Contents

• 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-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

  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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KARAJ i. Modern City

  Bernard Hourcade

  The area of Karaj has been inhabited since the Bronze Age at Tepe Khurvin, and the Iron Age at Kalāk on the left bank of the Karaj River.

• KARAJ ii. Population

  Habibollah Zanjani

  This sub-entry is divided into two sections: Karaj sub-province and Karaj city.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KARAJ CITY

  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).

• KARAJ DAM

  Cross-reference

  See AMIR KABIR DAM (forthcoming online).

• 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. It is one of the four Shiʿite shrine cities (with Najaf, Kāẓemayn, and Sāmarrāʾ) in Iraq known in Shʿite Islam as ʿatabāt-e ʿaliāt or ʿatabāt-e moqaddasa.

• 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).

• KĀRGĀNRUD

  Cross-Reference

  the northernmost and largest of the five traditional Ṭāleš khanates (Ḵamsa-ye Ṭavāleš) in western Gilān.