Table of Contents

  • MARZBĀN-NĀMA

    K. Crewe Williams

    an early 13th-century prose work in Persian consisting of various didactic stories and fables used as illustrations of morality and right conduct. The work is comprised of nine chapters (bāb) with main-framed stories, embedded minor tales, as well as Persian and Arabic poems, parables, sayings, and Qorʾanic expressions. 

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  • MĀSĀL

    Marcel Bazin

    small town and sub-provincial district (šahrestān) in the western part of Gilān Province.  The town is located at lat 37°22′ N, long 49°02′ E.

  • MAŠHAD-E ARDAHĀL

    Habib Borjian

    district and settlement near Kashan, significant for its shrine and conservative traditions.

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  • MASHAYEKHI, MEHRDAD

    Mehrzad Boroujerdi

    (1953-2011), scholar, public intellectual, political activist, whose research was focused primarily on the theoretical shortcomings of the traditional Iranian left and what seemed to him as their inadequate regard for democratic politics.

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  • MASISTES

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Greek rendering (Masístēs) of an Old Iranian name *Masišta- (reflected also in Bab. Ma-si-iš-tu4) based on the superlative YAv. masišta-, OPers. maθišta- “greatest, supreme”.

  • MASJED-E SANGI

    Dietrich Huff

    a rock-cut mosque near the ancient site of Dārābgerd.

  • MAŠREQ AL-AḎKĀR

    Moojan Momen

    With regard to the building and design of the Mašreq al-Aḏkārs, Bahāʾ-Allāh states: “Make them as perfect as is possible in the world of being.”  Writing in 1955 to the German Bahais, Shoghi Effendi considered that the Mašreq al-Aḏkār should not be built in ultra-modern style, but be “graceful in outline,” with a “delicate architectural beauty.” 

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  • MASRUR, Hosayn

    Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

    (1890-1968), novelist, poet, and literary scholar.

  • MASSAGETAE

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    (Gk. Massagétai), a nomadic tribe that settled in ancient times somewhere in the wide lowlands to the east of the Caspian Sea, in particular probably between the Oxus (Āmū Daryā) and Jaxartes (Syr Daryā) rivers.

  • MASSON, Charles

    Elizabeth Errington

    alias of James Lewis (1800-53), traveler, pioneering archeologist and numismatist, who in 1832-38 produced the first comprehensive archeological records of eastern Afghanistan.

  • MASʿUD (III) B. EBRĀHIM

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    recorded on his coins with various other honorifics. He seems to have had generally peaceful relations with his western neighbors, the Great Saljuqs.

  • MAS’UD, MOHAMMAD

    Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

    novelist and editor of the controversial and highly popular newspaper Mard-e emruz.

  • MASʿUD-E SAʿD-E SALMĀN

    Sunil Sharma

    (b. Lahore 1046-49?; d. 1121-22), Persian poet of the later Ghaznavid period. The first major Indo-Persian poet, Masʿud-e Saʿd-e Salmān is best known for the poetry he wrote in prison and in exile.

  • MASʿUDI

    Michael Cooperson

    a tenth-century geographer and historian and an important source of information on pre-Islamic and early Islamic Iran.

  • MĀSULA

    Marcel Bazin

    township and district (baḵš) in western Gilān.

  • MATHESON, Sylvia Anne

    Yolande Crowe

    Matheson was born Sylvia Anne Terry-Smith in London and trained at Wimbledon Technical College. By the age of 16 she started work as a journalist while attending evening classes at the Wimbledon School of Art. She interviewed celebrities such as Charles Laughton, Compton Mackenzie, and P. G. Wodehouse.

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  • MAURICE

    Michael Whitby

    (539-602), Roman emperor, who campaigned in the Balkans (against the Avars) and on the frontier of Sasanian Iran, but gave refuge to Ḵosrow II and helped him to secure the Sasanian throne from Bahrām Čōbin. 

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  • MAWDUD B. MASʿUD

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    sultan of the Ghaznavid dynasty, recorded on his coins with the honorifics Šehāb-al-Din wa’l-Dawla and Qoṭb-al-Mella.

  • MAWLAWI, ʿAbd-al-Raḥim Maʿdumi

    Keith Hitchins

    (1806-1882/83), a leading Kurdish poet of the 19th century who wrote in the Gurāni dialect of southeastern Kurdistan. He benefited from the support of Sufi shaikhs, who were generous patrons of writers and scholars. 

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  • MAYMANA, MEYMANA

    cross-reference

    See FĀRYĀB.

  • MAYRHOFER, MANFRED

    RÜDIGER SCHMITT

    Austrian scholar of comparative Indo-European linguistics and Indo-Iranian studies.

  • MAZAEUS

    Ernst Badian

    member of the highest Achaemenid aristocracy, who had a long career under Artaxerxes III, Darius III, and Alexander of Macedon. At Gaugamela, Mazaeus commanded the right wing of the Persian line with “the best of the cavalry.”

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  • MAZĀR-E ŠARIF

    Xavier de Planhol

    the largest city of northern Afghanistan and site of an important religious shrine.

  • MAZDAK, MAZDAKISM

    Cross-Reference

    See  IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic (1.1) Overview, COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY iv. In the Mazdakite religion, ḴORRAMIS, BĀBAK ḴORRAMĪ, SASANIAN DYNASTY, CLASS SYSTEM iii. In the Parthian and Sasanian Periods, IRAN ii. IRANIAN HISTORY (1) Pre-Islamic TimesZOROASTRIANISM i. Historical Review Up To The Arab Conquest.

  • MAẒHAR-E ELĀHI

    Moojan Momen

    (Manifestation of God), a key Bahai term designating the prophets/founders of the world’s religions as the manifestations of the names and attributes of God.

  • MECQUENEM, ROLAND DE

    Laurianne Martinez-Sève

    (1877-1957), French archeologist, director of the excavations of the Mission Archèologique de Susiane at Susa from 1913 to 1946.

  • MEDḤAT PASHA

    Necati Alkan

    A liberal Ottoman statesman of the 19th century, who served both as provincial governor and grand vizier (b. Istanbul, 18 October 1822; d. Ṭāʾef, 8 May 1884).

  • MEDIA

    M. Dandamayev and I. Medvedskaya

    ancient population region (from the end of the 2nd millennium BCE) and kingdom in northwestern Iran.

  • MEDICINE i. INTRODUCTION OF WESTERN MEDICINE TO IRAN

    Shireen Mahdavi

    Western medicine was introduced to Iran by European physicians who began to arrive there from early nineteenth century onwards.

  • MEGABATES

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Greek rendering of the well-known name OIran. *Baga-pāta- “protected by the gods” (which is attested in El. Ba-qa-ba-(ad-/ud-)da, Bab. Ba-ga-pa-a-ta/tu4, Ba-ga-(’)-pa-a-tú, etc., Aram. bgpt, Lyc. Magabata).

  • MEHR-NARSEH

    Touraj Daryaee

    The grand vizier (Mid. Pers. wuzurg framādār) during the reigns of the Sasanian kings Yazdgerd I (r. 399-421 CE), Bahrām V (r. 421-39), Yazdgerd II (r. 439-57), and Pērōz (r. 459-84).

  • MEHRAGĀN

    Simone Cristoforetti

    an Iranian festival apparently dedicated to the god Miθra/Mehr, occurring also in onomastics and toponymy.

  • MEHRAJĀN

    Habib Borjian

    oasis and the seat of Naḵlestān district in Ḵur-Biābānak sub-province, Isfahan province.

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  • MEIER, FRITZ

    Gudrun Schubert

    In 1937, Meier went for the first time to Iran, where he visited Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz. In 1938, he was awarded a prize at the University of Basel for his research on the Persian mystic Najm-al-Din Kobrā, and in the same year returned to Istanbul to continue his study of manuscripts of Islamic mystical texts.

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  • MEILLET, (PAUL JULES) ANTOINE

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Meillet called himself a comparatist, and probably he would have called himself a born comparatist. At the same time, he was an acknowledged philologist with a good grounding not only in Greek and Latin, but also in less common languages such as Armenian and Old Church Slavic.

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  • MELZER, UTO

    Nosratollah Rastegar

     (1881-1961), teacher, author, and independent scholar.

  • MEM-Ê ALAN

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    (Kurdish romance), probably the best-known Kurdish tale, and the one most often regarded as representative of Kurdish verbal art generally. 

  • MENASCE, JEAN PIERRE DE

    Philippe Gignoux

    (1902-1973), an eminent Iranist and historian of religions. His masterpiece was the explication of the Dēnkard, book III, a text of philosophical and theological content. 

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  • MENHĀJ-e SERĀJ

    C. E. Bosworth

    author of a general history in Persian valuable as a first-hand source for the history of the Ghurids, the Šamsi Delhi Sultans, and the irruption of the Mongols into the eastern Islamic lands.

  • MENOSTANES

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Achaemenid prince, son of Artaxerxes I’s brother Artarios, who was satrap of Babylon; he was a “eunuch” at Artaxerxes’ court and during the troubles about the succession after Artaxerxes’ death in 424/23 BCE.

  • MENTOR and MEMNON

    Ernst Badian

    Rhodian brothers, condottieri of the late Achaemenid period.

  • MEʿRĀJ

    Multiple Authors

    The term meʿrāj means “instrument of ascension,” more specifically associated with the Prophet Mohammad's “heavenly or celestial ascent”.

  • MEʿRĀJ i. DEFINITION

    Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

    Derived from the Arabic instrumental form mefʿāl, the term meʿrāj means “instrument of ascension,” either a “ladder” or a “stairway;” it can also designate the place one revolves or from where one climbs. However, in a technical sense and often accompanied by the article al-, it designates “heavenly or celestial ascent,” more specifically that which Muslim tradition attributes to the Prophet Mohammad, an ascension soon associated with the “nocturnal or night journey” (esrāʾ) of the latter.

  • MEʿRĀJ ii. Illustrations

    Christiane J. Gruber

    From the turn of the 14th century onward, depictions of the Prophet Moḥammad’s night journey (esrāʾ) and heavenly ascent (meʿrāj) were integrated into illustrated world histories and biographies.

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  • MESKAWAYH, ABU ʿALI AḤMAD

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    ABU ʿALI AḤMAD b. Moḥammad, Persian chancery official and treasury clerk of the Buyid period, boon companion, litterateur and accomplished writer in Arabic.

  • MESOPOTAMIA i. Iranians in Ancient Mesopotamia

    Muhammad Dandamayev

    an overview of the presence of Medes, Persians, and other Iranian-speakers in Mesopotamia prior to the Achaemenid empire.

  • MESSINA, GIUSEPPE

    Carlo G. Cereti

    (1893-1951), SJ, Italian scholar of Middle and Modern Iranian studies.

  • METALWORK

    Linda Komaroff

    perhaps the most continuous and best-documented artistic medium from Iran in the Islamic period.

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  • Meʿyār-e Jamāli wa meftāḥ-e Abu Esḥāqi

    Solomon Bayevsky

    (‘Jamāl’s touchstone and Abu Esḥāq’s key’), a dictionary of the Persian language (comp. ca. 745/1344).

  • MEYBOD

    Ali Modarres

    name of a sub-province (šahrestān) and town in Yazd Province (32°14′45″ N, 54°2′10″ E; elev. 3,637 ft.) on the road to Tehran, at a short distance south of Ardakān (see ARDAKĀN-e YAZD) and about 48 km northwest of the city of Yazd.

  • MEYBODI, ABU'L-FAŻL RAŠID-AL-DIN

    Annabel Keeler

    (fl. early 12th cent.), Sunni scholar, mystic and author of a monumental Persian Sufi commentary on the Qurʾān.

  • MEYMA i. The District

    Habib Borjian

    The district rests on a high plain on the western foothills of the Kargas range, which separates Meyma from Naṭanz on the east.

  • MEYMA ii. The Dialect

    Habib Borjian

    district is at the heart of the area where the Central dialects are spoken.

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  • MEYMANA

    Cross-Reference

    City of northwestern Afghanistan. See FĀRYĀB.

  • MICHAEL THE SYRIAN

    Florence Jullien

    Jacobite patriarch of Antioch (1166-99), who wrote a universal chronicle (from the Creation until 1195) in Syriac. It includes much information concerning the history of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran—for instance, persecutions under the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II and the 6th-century wars between the Romans and the Persians.

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  • MICROCOSM and MACROCOSM

    Philippe Gignoux

    in pre-Islamic Iranian thought: the theory of the correspondence between the different parts of the human being and those of the cosmos.

  • MIDDLE PERSIAN LITERATURE i. PAHLAVI LITERATURE

    Carlo G. Cereti

    the writings of the Zoroastrians in the Middle Persian language and Book Pahlavi script, which were compiled in the 9th and the 10th centuries CE.

  • MIHR YAŠT

    Almut Hintze

    Middle Persian form of the name of the tenth of the 21 Yašts of the Avesta; It constituted the seventh Fargard of the Avestan Bagān Yašt Nask, of which a Pahlavi summary survives in the Dēnkard. The Mihr Yašt is the hymn of the sixteenth day of the 30-day month of the Zoroastrian cal­endar.

  • MĪKĀL DYNASTY

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀL-E MĪKĀL.

  • MILĀN

    Pierre Oberling

    a Kurdish tribe in western Persian Azerbaijan.

  • MILLET

    Cross-Reference

    See ARZAN.

  • MINĀB

    Jamšid Ṣedāqatkiš and EIr.

    city and sub-province in the province of Hormozgān.

  • MINARET

    W. Kleiss

    (manāra), a tower, usually attached to a mosque, from which the muezzin (moʾaḏḏen) summons Muslims to prayer. In Arabic, manāra originally denotes a lighthouse or signaling tower at sea. The minaret was not part of the architecture of the early Islamic period. It appeared first in the 8th and 9th centuries.

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  • MINBĀŠIĀN, Ḡolām-Ḥosayn

    Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr

    violinist, pianist, and conductor (1907-1978).

  • MINING IN IRAN

    Multiple Authors

    i. Mines and Mineral Resources, ii. Mineral Industries

  • MINING IN IRAN i. MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES

    Mansur Qorbani and Anoshirvan Kani

    The ancient and pre-modern period is evidenced by abandoned mines: (1) of metallic ores: iron, copper, gold, lead, zinc, and silver; (2) of china clay and other materials; (3) of precious and semi-precious stones.

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  • MINING IN IRAN ii. MINERAL INDUSTRIES

    Willem Floor

    Commercial exploitation of the known resources, which are mainly located in inaccessible locations, was discouraged by the lack of cost-effective infrastructure.

  • MINORSKY, Vladimir Fed’orovich

    C. E. Bosworth

    (1877-1966), outstanding Russian scholar of Persian history, historical geography, literature and culture.

  • MINOVI, MOJTABA

    Mahmoud Omidsalar

    (1903-1977), an Iranian teacher, editor, translator, and literary scholar.

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  • MINSTREL

    Cross-Reference

    in pre-Islamic culture. See  GOSĀN.

  • MINT

    Shamameh Mohammadifar

    a strongly scented herb of genus Mentha of flowering plants in the Labiatae family, with many medicinal properties.

  • MIR FENDERESKI

    Sajjad H. Rizvi

    (1562/63-1640), Sayyed Amir Abu’l-Qāsem, renowned philosopher and mystic during the Safavid revitalization of philosophy.

  • MIR-E NOWRUZI

    Michèle Epinette

    The carnivalesque ritual of electing a commoner to rule for a period of one to five days over the country; The custom of the “false emir” or “Nowruz ruler” leading a procession through the city has been traced back to pre-Islamic Nowruz, the traditional Persian New Year.

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  • MIRACLES

    Multiple Authors

    in ancient Iran and Islam.

  • MIRACLES i. In Ancient Iranian Tradition

    Philippe Gignoux

    The written accounts of miracles in ancient Iran, both those relating to Zoroaster and his family and those regarding the legendary heroes of the Kayanid dynasty, have come down to us through the Pahlavi religious literature. These miracles do not reflect historical events; they are always associated with the mythical and legendary history of Mazdaism and the ancient Iranian epic.

  • MIRʿALĀʾI, Aḥmad

    Jalil Doostkhah

    (1942-1995), editor of three literary magazines and translator of works of Western literature.

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  • MIRATH-E MAKTUB

    Ali Mir-Ansari

    a research center in Tehran, focused on editing manuscripts (including those concerned with the history of science), cataloguing Persian and Arabic manuscripts in Iran and the wider Persianate cultural area, and studying related codicological issues.

  • MIRDREKVANDI, ʿALI

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    nicknamed “Gunga Din,” author of “Irradiant,” a popular epic written in broken English in the mid-20th century.

  • MIRJALĀLI, MAḤMUD

    Ahmad Ashraf

    (1898-1983), a prominent military figure and instructor at the Tehran Military Academy and National War University.

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  • MIRROR FOR PRINCES

    Cross-Reference

    genre of didactic literature, both ancient and medieval: see ADAB; ANDARZ.

  • MIRŠAKAR, MIRSAID

    Keith Hitchins

    (1912-1993), Tajik poet, dramatist, and children’s author; People’s Poet of Tajikistan, 1962.

  • MIRZA MOḤAMMAD ĀḠĀ JĀN

    Cross-Reference

    Author of Avīmāq-e Moḡol (publ. 1900), see ʿABD-AL-QĀDER KHAN.

  • MITHRA

    Multiple Authors

    i. Mitra in Old Indian and Mithra in Old Iranian   ii. Iconography in Iran and Central Asia   iii. in Manicheism

  • MITHRA i. MITRA IN OLD INDIAN AND MITHRA IN OLD IRANIAN

    Hanns-Peter Schmidt

    Indo-Iranian god, with name based on the common noun mitrá “contract” with the connotations of “covenant, agreement, treaty, alliance, promise.”

  • MITHRA ii. ICONOGRAPHY IN IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA

    Franz Grenet

    On coins of the Arsacids the seated archer dressed as a Parthian horseman has been interpreted as Mithra. In the Kushan empire Mithra is among the deities most frequently depicted on the coinage, always as a young solar god.

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  • MITHRA iii. IN MANICHEISM

    Werner Sundermann

    The Iranian Manicheans adopted the name of the Zoroastrian god Mithra (Av. Miθra; Mid. Pers.Mihr)and used it to designate one of their own deities.

  • MITHRAISM

    Roger Beck

    the cult of Mithra as it developed in the West, its origins, its features, and its probable connection with Mithra worship in Iran.

  • MITHRIDATES VI

    Brian McGing

    Eupator Dionysos (r. 120-63 BCE), last king of Pontus, descendant of Iranian nobility who took part in the Persian colonization of Asia Minor. He is noted primarily for his opposition to Rome.

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  • MOʾAYYAD FI’L-DIN ŠIRĀZI

    Verena Klemm

    (ca. 1000-87), outstanding and multitalented representative of the Fatimid religious and political mission (daʿwa) in the service of the Caliph/Imam Mostanṣer bi’llāh (r. 1036-94).

  • MOʾAYYED AY-ABA

    Maryam Kamali

    a slave, promoted to to the commander of the army of the Saljuqid king, Sultan Sanjar, who ruled in Nišāpur (r. 1168-74) in his name.

  • MOʿAYYERI, Mohammad Hasan

    Kāmyār ʿĀbedi

    (1909-1968), prominent poet and lyricist, better known as Rahi.

  • MOBĀRAK, HĀJI

    Anthony A. Lee

    (1823-1863), African slave of Sayyed ʿAli-Moḥammad Širāzi, the Bāb, and participant in the founding events of the Babi movement.

  • MOCKLER, EDWARD

    Agnes Korn and Elaine Zair

    (1842-1927), British army officer and diplomat who contributed to the study of Baluchistan and the Baluchi language.

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  • MODARRESI, Taqi

    Nasrin Rahimieh

    (1931-1997), Persian novelist and psychiatrist.

  • MODI, JIVANJI JAMSHEDJI

    Michael Stausberg and Ramiyar P. Karanjia

    (1854-1933) Parsi priest, scholar, public servant, and community activist. Modi produced scholarly works on a greatr range of subjects, and he may well have been the most prolific Parsi scholar of modern times. 

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  • MOʿEZZ-AL-DAWLA

    Claude Cahen

    (d. 967), ABU’L-ḤOSAYN, Aḥmad ebn Abi Šojāʿ, 4th/10th century Buyid prince, the youngest of the three brothers who conquered western, southern, and central Persia.

  • MOʿEZZI NIŠĀBURI

    Hormoz Davarpanah

    (ca. 1048/49-ca. 1125/27), Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad, a major poet at the court of the Saljuqs in Khorasan in the 12th century.

  • MOFAŻŻAL al-JOʿFI

    Mushegh Asatryan

    a prominent member of the Kufan ḡolāt and companion of the sixth and seventh Shiʿite imams Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musa al-Kāẓem.

  • MOḠĀN

    Richard Tapper

    (or Dašt-e Moḡān, also Muqān), a lowland steppe in Azerbaijan.

  • MOHALLABI, Abu Moḥammad

    Maurice Pomerantz

    vizier and literary patron.