Table of Contents

• MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Āmu Daryā.

• MAʿĀYEB AL-REJĀL

  Afsaneh Najmabadi

  a treatise written in 1894 by Bibi Ḵānom Estarābādi/Astarābādi as a counterargument to the anonymous Taʾdib al-neswān/Taʾdib al-nesāʾ, a tract on how to discipline women, published in the mid-19th century.

• MACHALSKI, FRANCISZEK

  Anna Krasnowolska

  (1904-1979), Polish Iranist. Some of his best papers are devoted to cultural and political life in Pahlavi Persia.

• MACKENZIE, DAVID NEIL

  Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst

  (1926-2001), distinguished British scholar of Middle and Modern Iranian languages with an impressive record of publications.

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• MADĀʾEN

  Michael Morony

  the Sasanian metropolitan area of several contiguous cities, on both sides of the Tigris and connected by floating bridges, about 35 km southeast of Abbasid Baghdad.

• MADĀR AL-AFĀŻEL

  Solomon Bayevsky

  dictionary of the Persian language compiled in 1001/1593 by the poet and historian Allāh-dād Fayżī b. Asad al-ʿOlamāʾ ʿAli-šir Serhendi.

• MĀDAR-E SOLAYMĀN

  Cross-Reference

  "Solaymān's mother," local name of the tomb of Cyrus. See CYRUS v. The Tomb of Cyrus. 

• MĀDAYĀN Ī HAZĀR DĀDESTĀN

  Maria Macuch

  (Book of a Thousand Judgements), Pahlavi Law-Book from the late Sasanian period (first half of the seventh century).

• MĀDDA TĀRIḴ

  Paul Losensky

  chronogram poem, a poetic genre characterized by the inclusion of the year in which an event occurred.

• MAFĀTIḤ AL-ʿOLUM

  George Saliba

  Keys to sciences), a book in which key terms used by various classes of scholars, artisans, state officials, etc. are explained.

• MAGI

  Muhammad A. Dandamayev

  the only recorded designation of priests of all western Iranians during the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian (mgw), and Sasanian periods.

• MAGIC i. MAGICAL ELEMENTS IN THE AVESTA AND NĒRANG LITERATURE

  Antonio Panaino

  The presence of magical elements in the strict sense  in Avestan literature has been considered rare.

• MAGIC ii. IN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD

  Mahmud Omidsalar

  Magic can be briefly described as the art of influencing the course of events by the occult control of natural phenomena through the application of ritual observances acquired through a study of esoteric and often closely guarded corpus of knowledge and traditions.

• MAGOPHONIA

  Muhammad A. Dandamayev

  An appropriate Iranian word for magophonia is the Sogdian mwγzt- (killing of the Magi).

• MAḤALLĀTI, Moḥammad

  Javad Golmohammadi

  a master calligrapher of the Timurid period, known only through three surviving works on wood and stone (a cetanoph, a door, and a stone plaque), which reflect the stylistic influence of the Timurid prince and master calligrapher Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Bāysonqor (d. 1493).

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• MAHĀRLU LAKE

  Karāmat-Allāh Afsar

  a picturesque, rather extensive body of water to the southeast of Shiraz.

• MAḤFEL-E RUḤĀNI

  Moojan Momen

  current designation of the Bahai governing councils elected at local and national level.

• MAHJUB, MOHAMMAD JA’FAR

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  prominent scholar of Persian literature, essayist, translator, university teacher, and one of the founders of the discipline of folklore in Iran.

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• MAḤJUBI, Morteżā

  Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr

  (1900-1965), composer and pianist,  noted for his use of the piano to perform traditional Iranian music.

• MAḤJUBI, Reżā

  Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr

  (1898-1954) composer and violinist, brother of Morteżā.

• MAḤMUD MIRZĀ

  Dominic Parviz Brookshaw

  (b. 1799, d. between 1854 and 1858), fifteenth son of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834), calligrapher, poet, and anthologist.

• MAJALLA-ye JAMʿIYAT-e NESWĀN-e WAṬANḴᵛĀH-e IRĀN

  Nassereddin Parvin

  magazine of the women's association of that name, 1923-26.

• MAJALLA-ye RASMI-e ṮABT

  Nassereddin Parvin

  official journal of the Ministry of Justice from 1928.

• MAJD, Loṭf-Allāh

  Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr

  tār player known for his brilliant virtuosity and distinctive style (1917-1978).

• MAJD-AL-MOLK II

  M. Dabirsiāqi

  , Mirzā Taqi Khan Monši-e Hożur (b. 1278/1861) a high ranking Qajar official and poet with the pen name ʿAbqari.

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• MAJLESI, Moḥammad-Bāqer

  Rainer Brunner

  (b. 1627; d. 1699 or 1700), an eminent Twelver Shiʿite jurist in Safavid Iran (1501-1722) and one of the most important hadith scholars of Twelver Shiʿism.

• MAJLESI, MOḤAMMAD-TAQI

  Rainer Brunner

  b. Maqṣud-ʿAli Eṣfahāni, commonly referred to as Majlesi-ye Awwal, an important Twelver Shiʿite jurist and Hadith scholar of the Aḵbāri school.

• MAKRĀN

  C. E. Bosworth

  (also Mokrān) the coastal region of Baluchistan, extending from the Somniani Bay to the northwest of Karachi in the east westwards to the fringes of the region of Bashkardia/Bāšgerd in the southern part of the Sistān and Balučestān province of modern Iran.

• MAKTAB

  Cross-Reference

  See EDUCATION iii. The Traditional Elementary School.

• MĀKŪLĀ DYNASTY

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀL-E MĀKŪLĀ.

• MALABĀRI, BEHRĀMJI MERWĀNJI

  Firoze M. Kotwal and Jamsheed K. Choksy

  Parsi Zoroastrian who became a prominent Indian poet, author, and social reformer. Moving to Bombay, Malabari initially served as a teacher at the Fort Proprietary School in 1876.

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• MALAKUT

  Saeed Honarmand

  the highly acclaimed and the only published novella by the noted modernist fiction writer Bahram Sadeqi.

• MALEKŠĀH

  David Durand-Guédy

  the Great Saljuq sultan, during whose reign the Saljuq empire attained its maximum extension.

• MALIĀN

  Kamyar Abdi

  an important archeological site in the Kor River basin in central Fārs, identified as ancient Anshan, the highland capital of Elam. At nearly 200 ha, Maliān is the largest pre-Achaemenid settlement in Fārs and one of largest archeological sites in Iran.

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• MAMIKONEAN

  Nina Garsoian

  the most distinguished family in Early Christian Armenia after the ruling Arsacid house. Their power survived the fall of the dynasty in 428 and began to wane only from the end of the 6th century.

• MAMSIRATI, DÄBE

  F. Thordarson

  (Russian: Dabe Mamsurov), Ossetic author (1909-1966).

• MAḤMUD B. SEBÜKTEGIN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  the first fully independent ruler of the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty, who reigned (388-421/998-1030) over what had become by his death a vast military empire.

• MAʾMUN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  , Abu’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd-Allāh, the seventh Abbasid caliph (r. 813-833), son of Hārun-al-Rašid (d. 809) by a Persian concubine.

• MANDAEANS i. HISTORY

  Edmondo F. Lupieri

  an ethnic group (also called Nasoreans or Ar. Ṣābeʾin) belonging to one of the less represented religions of the Near East.

• MANDAEANS ii. THE MANDAEAN RELIGION

  Kurt Rudolph

  A major characteristic of the Mandaeans is the frequent ritual use of (running) water (for baptisms and ritual purifications); another is the possession of a rich literature

• MANDAEANS iii. INTERACTION WITH IRANIAN RELIGION

  Kurt Rudolph

  assimilation and corresponding processing of Iranian (Persian) components within the Mandaean religion can be demonstrated on different levels: in the vocabulary, in the mythology or theology, in the cultic-ritual realm, and in the calendar.

• MANDAEANS iv. COMMUNITY IN IRAN

  Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley

  According to the 15 September 2004 United States Department of State International Religious Freedom Report for Iran, Section 1, the current Mandaean population in Persia comprises between 5,000 and 10,000 persons.

• MANDAEANS v. MANDAIC LANGUAGE

  Christa Müller-Kessler

  Mandaic is the term for the Aramaic dialect of the last remaining non-Christian Gnostics from Late Antiquity, the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran (Ḵuzestān). It belongs to the Southeastern Aramaic dialect group with Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic (Babylonian Jewish Aramaic) and Koiné Babylonian Aramaic.

• MANDAEANS vi. NEO-MANDAIC LANGUAGE

  Charles Häberl

  or modern Mandaic, the contemporary form of Mandaic, the language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. As such, it is the only known form of any of the classical literary dialects of Aramaic to survive to the present date, but it is severely endangered today.

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• MANDANE

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  name of a daughter of the Median king Astyages.

• MANGHITS

  ANKE VON KÜGELGEN

  self-denomination of Mongol and Turkic tribes which played an eminent role in the Golden Horde.

• MANI

  Werner Sundermann

  the founder of the religion of Manicheism in the 3rd century CE.

• MANICHEAN ART

  Zsuzsanna Gulacsi

  term referring to objects with aesthetic appeal that were made for, and/or used in association with,  the Manichean religion. With the exception of a rock-crystal seal in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris,  no other item of Manichean art is known from Sasanian Mesopotamia, where the religion had originated.

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• MANICHEAN SCRIPT

  Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst

  a right-to-left Semitic script, used by adherents of Manicheism to write texts in Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Early New Persian, Bactrian, and Uighur (Old Turkish). It is closely related to the Palmyrene script of Aramaic and the Estrangelo script of Syriac; some of its orthographical conventions are also to be found in the Mandaean script.

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• MANICHEISM i. GENERAL SURVEY

  Werner Sundermann

  Manicheism is the only world religion that has become completely extinct. Its founder, Mani, lived in the third century CE. His religion spread over the continents from the Atlantic to the Chinese Sea.