Table of Contents

  • RABʿ-E RAŠIDI

    Sheila S. Blair

    the charitable foundation (abwāb al-berr) established by the physician, vizier, and historian Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh in an eastern suburb of Tabriz.

  • RABATAK INSCRIPTION

    Cross-Reference

    in the Bactrian language. See KUSHAN DYNASTY ii. Inscriptions of the Kushans.

  • RABBAN ŠĀPUR

    Florence Jullien

    East Syrian monk (7th century CE);  the monastery he founded in Ḵuzestān, in the mountains of Šuštar, exercised noteworthy influence on monastic practice in the Persian Gulf area and Fārs, as well as Beth Huzāye, during the 7th century.

  • RĀBET, ʿABD-AL-AḤAD

    Mohammad Baqir

    19th-century Indian author of Persian works (d. 1268/1851-52).

  • RAʿD

    Nasreddin Parvin

    (Thunder), the name of a newspaper published by Sayyed Żiyāʾ-al-Din Ṭabāṭabāʾi in Tehran, 1913-1921, with interruptions.

  • RAʿDI AZARAKHSHI, Gholam-ʿAli

    Kāmyār ʿĀbedi

    (1909-1999), prominent poet.

  • RADI, AKBAR

    Farindokht Zahedi

    (1939-2007) dramatist, short story writer, university lecturer, and an influential figure in popularizing theatre as an art in modern Iran, whose incorporation of colloquial Persian in his works, has contributed to the preservation of the dialects of the northern provinces.

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  • RAFʿAT (REFʿAT)

    Gregory Maxwell Bruce

    (d. 1819), pen name of ḠOLĀM JILĀNI, scholar of Arabic and Persian literature, teacher at Rampur, and author of Dorr-e manẓum.

  • RĀḠEB EṢFAHĀNI

    Geert Jan van Gelder

    (d. early 5th/11th cent.), scholar, littérateur, and author of works on Islamic ethics, Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic theology, and Arabic philology, as well as anthologies.

  • RAHAVARD

    Ḡafur Mirzāʾi

    one of the first Persian periodicals published by the Iranian community in the United States after the Iranian revolution of 1979.

  • RAHI

    Cross-Reference

    pen name of prominent 20th century poet and lyricist Mohammad Hasan Mo'ayyeri. See MO'AYYERI, MOHAMMAD HASAN

  • RAḤIMZĀDA, BĀQI

    Keith Hitchins

    (Boqī Rahimzoda in Tajik orthography; b. Sorboḡi, 15 May 1910; d. Dushanbe, 30 January 1980), Tajik poet who adapted classical Persian-Tajik forms to the social and cultural goals of the Soviet era.

  • RAHMANI, NOSRAT

    Saeid Rezvani

    (1930-2000), modernist poet of 1960s-1990s, among the few of his contemporaries whose poems did not participate in the ideological discourse of the period in search of social justice and freedom, and whose rebellious discontent manifested itself more in his challenging of social norms and codes of behavior.

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  • RĀHNEMĀ-YE ZENDAGI

    Nassereddin Parvin

    (Guide to life), a biweekly magazine published in Tehran, 1940-41.

  • Railroads i. The First Railroad Built and Operated in Persia

    Soli Shahvar

    During the three decades between the 1850s and the 1880s various foreign concerns attempted to introduce railways to Persia, but these did not materialize.

  • RAJʿA

    Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

    (lit.: “return”), theological term that has had many meanings according to the context in which it was professed.

  • RĀM WA SITĀ

    Prashant Keshavmurthy

    an early 17th-century Persian translation of an ancient Indian love story epic in Vālmiki’s Sanskrit Rāmāyaa that narrates the earthly career of Rām, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and his wife Sitā. It was translated in the maṯnawi genre by Masiḥ Saʿd-Allāh Pānipati.

  • RAM, Emad

    Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi

    (1931-2003), composer, vocalist, and flute player.

  • RĀMHORMOZ

    Dénes Gazsi

    a town and sub-province in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.

  • RĀNEKUH

    Cross-Reference

    old district encompassing eastern Gilān in the 19th century. It became a part of Lāhijān sub-province (šahrestān) in 1937 and was divided between the sub-provinces of Langarud and Rudsar in the 1960s.

  • RĀŠED-AL-DIN SENĀN

    Farhad Daftary

    (1126-1193), one of the most prominent figures in the entire history of the Nezāri Ismaʿilis in Syria. He converted to Ismaʿilism in his youth and went to Alamut to furthur his education on the subject. He played a major role in the regional politics of Syria and succeeded in maintaining the independence of his community under the most adverse circumstances.

  • RASHT i. The City

    Christian Bromberger

    city and district in Gilān province, the capital of Gilān and the largest city along the Caspian coast of Iran.

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  • RASHT ii. The District

    Marcel Bazin

    the largest distirct in the plain of Gilān and the most populated in the whole province. 

  • RAŠN

    William Malandra

    Avestan Rašnu, the deity of the ancient Iranian pantheon who functions as the divine Judge.

  • RAŠN YAŠT

    Leon Goldman

    the Middle Persian title given to the twelfth Yašt of the Avesta. It is dedicated to the Zoroastrian deity Rašnu

  • RASSEKH, MEHRI

    Cyrus Alai

    Returning to Iran in 1962, Rassekh taught asassistant professor at the University of Tehran Department of Psychology and Education. She was promoted to full professorship and in 1973 was appointed head of that department— the first woman department head in an Iranian university.

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  • RASTḴIZ

    Nassereddin Parvin

    (Resurrection) newspaper published 1915-16 in Baghdad a group of Iranian expatriates in Europe, headed by Sayyed asan Taqizāda.

  • RASULID HEXAGLOT

    Peter B. Golden

    a six-language glossary compiled by or prepared for the sixth Rasulid king of Yemen (r. 1363-77).

  • RATHINES

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    a general of Pharnabazos, the satrap of the Daskylitis (see DASCYLIUM) under Dareios II and Artaxerxes II (see DARIUS iv and ARTAXERXES II).

  • RĀVANDI, Qoṭb-al-Din Saʿid

    Etan Kohlberg

    Imami author, traditionist, and jurist (d. Qom, 14 Šawwāl 573/5 April 1178).

  • RAWAK VIHARA

    Ulf Jaeger

    a ruined Buddhist stupa and monastery complex located about 40 km northeast of Hotan/Hetian in Xinjiang Province, western China; translated as “high building” or “steep house”.

  • RAWLINSON, HENRY ii. CONTRIBUTIONS TO ASSYRIOLOGY AND IRANIAN STUDIES

    Peter T. Daniels

    His first relevant activity was to copy the trilingual inscriptions of Darius I and Xerxes I at Mount Alvand (Elvend) near Hamadān, in April 1835.

  • RAWWADIDS

    Andrew Peacock

    a family of Arab descent that controlled parts of Azerbaijan and Armenia from the late 8th through the 11th centuries.

  • RAWŻA-YE TASLIM

    S. Jalal Badakhchani

    title of the most comprehensive work on the Nezāri Ismaʿili theology of the Alamut  period by Naṣir-al-Din Ṭusi, the celebrated polymath who also served as vizier under the Il-khanid Hülegü.

  • RAY i. ARCHEOLOGY

    Rocco Rante

    In the late 19th and early 20th century, the site was excavated unscientifically by Western archeologists and local dealers, mostly to search for precious objects; a large proportion of the finds found their way to the black market. At present several museums conserve some specimens from Ray belonging to this antiquarian surge.

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  • RĀŻIA ĀZĀD

    Evelin Grassi

    (Roziya Ozod; 1893-1957), Tajik poet and educator.

  • RED DEER

    Eskandar Firouz

    Cervus elaphus, in Persian: Marāl and also Gavazn and Gāv-e kuhi. i. Natural history. ii. In Persian art. The red deer ranges from Europe to Northeast Asia, its appearance changing gradually, until, from Central Asia eastward, it becomes quite similar to the North American wapiti.

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  • REDARD, GEORGES

    Gerard Fussman

    Swiss scholar of comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages and Iranian dialectology.

  • REICHELT, HANS

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Among Reichelt’s publications are a number of studies on the Indo-European languages in general, especially on Greek and Latin, but the focus of his attention were the Old and Middle Iranian languages, more particularly, Avestan and Sogdian studies. All his work is characterized by his philological acumen.

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  • RESĀLA-YE MADANIYA

    Sen McGlinn

    a treatise of some 130 pages by Abd-al-Baha, internally dated in 1292/1875, which calls on the Iranian people to ‘awake’ and take the steps necessary to modernize the country.

  • REŻWĀNŠAHR

    Marcel Bazin

    small town and sub-provencial unit (šahrestān) in the western part of Gilān Province.

  • RHETORICAL FIGURES

    Natalia Chalisova

    devices of embellishment, tropes, and figures considered as an intrinsic part of literary expression in medieval Persia.

  • RHODOGUNE

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    probably a rendering of OIran. *Vṛda-gaunā-, fem. “rose-colored,” and the name of several female historical figures.

  • RHOXANE

    Multiple Authors

    name of various women in Achaemenid times, most notably the wife of Alexander the Great (usually called Roxane or Roxana in English).

  • RHOXANE i. THE NAME

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    name of various women in Achaemenid times, most notably the wife of Alexander the Great (usually called Roxane or Roxana in English).

  • RHOXANE ii. ALEXANDER’S WIFE

    Ernst Badian

    name of various women in Achaemenid times, most notably the wife of Alexander the Great (usually called Roxane or Roxana in English).

  • RHYTON

    Ulf Jaeger

    translated as “drinking horn,” its upper end can be filled with liquid and the lower end has a spout for pouring liquid out.

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  • RIAHI, MOHAMMAD AMIN

    Moḥammad Esteʿlāmi

    prominent scholar of Persian classical literature, statesman, and professor of Persian language and literature.

  • RICE

    Cross-Reference

    See BERENJ.

  • RISHĀR KHAN

    Shireen Mahdavi

    (Rišār Khan), the Persian name of Jules Richard (1816-1891), a Frenchman in the service of Persian government as a language instructor at Dār al-Fonun College, court photographer, and translator.