Table of Contents

• KAZERUN iii. Old Kazerun Dialect

  ʿAlī Ašraf Ṣādeqī

  The old dialect of the city of Kazerun was commonly used by the local people up to around the 14th-15th centuries. 

• KĀZERUNI FAMILY

  Habib Borjian

  an entrepreneurial family based in Isfahan, best known for their role in the textile industry, above all the pioneering Waṭan factory. This entry is divided into three sections: Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Kāzeruni; The Waṭan factory; After the patriarch.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

• KÉGL, SÁNDOR

  Miklos Sarkozy

  Hungarian orientalist, polymath, and bibliophile, who devoted a major part of his studies to Persian literature.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

• Kent, Roland Grubb

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  American scholar of Indo-European studies, who specialized also in Old Persian studies. He went to Berlin and Munich universities to continue for two years his classical studies, including (apart from the languages) Greek epigraphy, history, and archeology.

• KÉPES, GÉZA

  András Bodrogligeti

  (1909-1989), Hungarian poet and translator of Persian poetry. He was the son of a blacksmith and proud of his origins, claiming that the legacy of his father’s craftsmanship as a skilled artisan.

• KERIYA

  Alain Cariou

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

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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 in Istanbul.

• KEYVĀNLU TRIBE

  Pierre Oberling

  a Kudish tribe of Khorasan. It was one of those Kurdish tribes that Shah ʿAbbās I forced to migrate from western Persia around 1600 for the purpose of fighting off the incursions of the Uzbeks.

• KHACHIKIAN, Samuel

  Jamsheed Akrami

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

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KHADEMI, Ali Mohammad

  Chapour Rassekh

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

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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

  The Khalaj are usually referred to as Turks, but Josef Marquart (pp. 251-54) claimed that they were remnants of the Hephthalite confederation. This entry is divided into two sections: 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• KHALILI, Abbas

  Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

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

• KHALKHAL

  Marcel Bazin

  the southeasternmost district of Azerbaijan.  Its main city and administrative center, Heruābād, is located at lat 37°28′ N, long 48°31′ E. 

• 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).

• KHAYYAM, OMAR ix. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

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

  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 LITERATURE AND SOCIETY IN THE WEST

  Jos Biegstraaten

  The first scholar outside Persia to study Omar Khayyam was the English orientalist, Thomas Hyde (1636-1703).

• 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, historically an important kingdom with an Iranian-speaking population. 

• 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.

• KIĀ, ṢĀDEQ

  Habib Borjian

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

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.