Table of Contents

  • SISTĀNI, MIRZĀ ŠĀH-ḤOSAYN

    Kioumars Ghereghlou

    (1571-after 1627), Persian historian, poet, and bureaucrat whose works include a local history of Sistān, a biographical dictionary of poets, and two maṯnawis.

  • ŠKAND GUMĀNĪG WIZĀR

    Carlo G. Cereti

    a Middle Persian Zoroastrian text written by Mardānfarrox son of Ohrmazddād in the ninth century.

  • SLAVES and SLAVERY

    Cross-Reference

    See BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI.

  • SMBAT BAGRATUNI

    N. Garsoian

    distinguished Armenian prince and head of the Bagratid house at the turn of the 6th to the 7th century.

  • SMOKING IN IRAN

    Esfandyar Batmanghelidj

    Iran began producing finished cigarettes in order to meet growing domestic demand.  Russian investors established a series of manufacturing facilities in Rasht by 1890.  According to the accounts of the British consul in Gilan, the these produced cigarettes “too hot and coarse for European tastes,” but “well made and cheap enough.”

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  • SOAP

    Willem Floor

    (Ar. and Pers. ṣābun) was manufactured in Persia from antiquity. In the 10th century, various Persian towns produced soap, among them Bost, Balkh, and Arrajān.

  • ṢOBḤI, FAŻL-ALLĀH MOHTADI

    Moojan Momen

    (1897-1962), Persian school teacher, who is best known as a children’s storyteller, collector of folktales, broadcaster, and Bahai apostate.

  • SOCIETAS IRANOLOGICA EUROPAEA

    Gherardo Gnoli

    (SIE), important international association in the field of Iranian studies.

  • SODIQI MUNŠI, Mirzo

    Keith Hitchins

    Tajik poet (d. 1819). Little is known of his life and career.

  • SOFRA

    Mahmoud Omidslalar

    a piece of cloth that is spread on the floor, and on which dishes of food are placed at meal times.

  • SOGDIAN LANGUAGE

    Multiple Authors

    one of the Eastern Middle Iranian languages once spoken in Sogdiana.

  • SOGDIAN LANGUAGE i. Description

    Yutaka Yoshida

    Sogdian is one of the Eastern Middle Iranian languages once spoken in Sogdiana (northern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) before the Islamization of the area in the 10th century. It was written in three scripts: Sogdian, Manichean, and Syriac.

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  • SOGDIAN LANGUAGE ii. Loanwords in Persian

    B. Gharib

    Loanwords from Sogdian into Persian were adopted through the cultural relations and commercial interactions which existed between Iran proper and Transoxiana, the birth place of Sogdian language.

  • SOGDIAN LITERATURE i. Buddhist

    Yutaka Yoshida

    A considerable number of Buddhist Sogdian texts dating from around the 8th century CE were unearthed from “Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” at Dunhuang in western China and from Turfan in Chinese Turkestan.

  • SOGDIAN TRADE

    Etienne de la Vaissiere

    The people of Sogdiana were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia from the 5th to the 8th century.

  • SOGDIANA

    Multiple Authors

    the name in Classical sources for Suγd, the region of Central Asia north of the river Oxus/Amu Darya.

  • SOGDIANA i. The Name

    Pavel Lurje

    etymology of the name of the ancient and medieval land around Samarqand.

  • SOGDIANA ii. Historical Geography

    Pavel Lurje

    accounts of the cities and regions of Sogdiana.

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  • SOGDIANA iii. HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY

    É. de La Vaissière

    an Iranian-speaking region in Central Asia that stretches from the rivers Āmu Daryā in the south to the Syr Daryā in the north, with its heart in the valleys of the Zarafšān and the Kaška Daryā.

  • SOGDIANA iv. SOGDIAN ART

    Markus Mode

    The development and apogee of Sogdian art was limited to four or five centuries before and during the Muslim conquest of Transoxania. Sogdian art of the heartlands flourished in the settled areas of the Zeravshan and Kashkadarya valleys, as well as in Ustrushana (Osrušana), north of the Turkestan mountain range.

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