Table of Contents

  • 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.