Table of Contents

• SHEEP

  Cross-Reference

  See GUSFAND.

• SHIELD in Eastern Iran

  Boris A. Litvinsky

  In Lurestan, a round bronze shield was found, which has a skirting along the edge, an umbo in the center, and relief depictions of fantastic creatures.

• SHIʿITE DOCTRINE

  Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

  Shiʿite doctrine is usually considered to be based on five principles. However, to articulate matters of faith in such a manner seems reductionist and late.

• SHIʿITE DOCTRINE ii. Hierarchy in the Imamiyya

  Rainer Brunner

  The distinction between believers and ulema (ʿolemāʾ “religious scholars”) is known to both Sunnites and Shiʿites, and forms the starting point for internal ranking systems among their ulema.

• SHIʿITE DOCTRINE iii. Imamite-Sunnite Relations since the Late 19th Century

  Rainer Brunner

  Since the 20th century, sectarian relations have reflected a growing number of attempts to reach, at least to some degree, an understanding and a rapprochement of each other’s views (taqrib, rarely taqārob).

• SHIʿITES IN ARABIA

  Werner Ende

  survey of the Arabian peninsula including Persian Gulf regions.

• SHIʿITES IN LEBANON

  Sabrina Mervin

  Shiʿites, that is, Muslims adhering to the Twelver (eṯnāʿašari) or Imamite persuasion of Shiʿism, form the single largest denominational community of Lebanon. Their number is estimated at 1.5 million.

• SHIR-E SHIAN

  Christopher P. Thornton

  (Šir-āšiān), a prehistoric site located 15 km southwest of Damghan in northeastern Iran.  

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• SHIRAZ i. HISTORY TO 1940

  A. Shapur Shahbazi

  The city of Shiraz has been the capital of the province of Fārs since the Islamic conquest, succeeding Eṣṭaḵr of the Sasanian period and Persepolis of the Achaemenid days.

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• SHIRVANLU, FIRUZ

  EIr

  (1938-1989), art critic, scholar, and artist, who played an instrumental role in the creation and management of several museums and cultural centers in the 1960s and 1970s.

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• SHOGHI EFFENDI

  Moojan Momen

  Šawqi Rabbāni (1897-1957), eldest grandson and successor of ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ as leader of the Bahai Faith (1921-57). Iranian Bahais usually refer to him as Ḥażrat-e Waliy-e Amrallāh, the title given to him by ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ, usually translated as “the Guardian of the Cause of God, or simply “the Guardian.”

• SIĀH-QALAM

  Bernard O'Kane

  “black pen” (1) the genre of paintings or drawings done in pen and ink; (2) the painters of such drawings.

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• SIĀHKAL

  Marcel Bazin and Christian Bromberger

  small town and sub-provincial district (šahrestān) in the southeastern part of Gilān province.

• SIBERIAN ELM

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀZĀD.

• SĪH-RŌZAG

  Enrico G. Raffaelli

  a text of the Xorda Avesta comprising invocations to Zoroastrian divinities.

• SILK

  Cross-Reference

  Originally from China, silk has been known in Iran since ancient times. See ABRĪŠAM.

• SIMJURIDS

  Luke Treadwell

  a family of Turkish mamluks who over four generations, from the late 9th century to the Qarakhanid conquest (389/999), played a leading role in the Samanid state.

• SIMORḠ

  Hanns-Peter Schmidt

  (Persian), Sēnmurw (Pahlavi), Sīna-Mrū (Pāzand), a fabulous, mythical bird. The name derives from Avestan mərəγō saēnō ‘the bird Saēna’, originally a raptor, either eagle or falcon, as can be deduced from the etymologically identical Sanskrit śyená.

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• SINDHI

  Christopher Shackle

  A language of the Indo-Aryan family. Many of its numerous distinctive features may be attributed to the isolated position in the lower Indus valley of Sindh.

• SINEMĀ WA NEMĀYEŠĀT

  Nassereddin Parvin

  the first Persian magazine entirely devoted to cinematography (1930).

• SIRĀFI, ABU SAʿID ḤASAN

  David Pingree

  10th-century polymath known best for his work as a grammarian.

• ŠIRĀZI, Nur-al-Din Moḥammad ʿAbd-Allāh

  Fabrizio Speziale

  Indo-Muslim physician and one of the main Persian authors of works on medical subjects in India in the 17th century.

• SISTĀN ii. In the Islamic period

  C. E. Bosworth

  It was during the governorship in Khorasan of ʿAbdallāh b. ʿĀmer for the caliph ʿOṯmān that the Arabs first appeared in Sistān, when in 31/652 Zarang surrendered peacefully, although Bost resisted fiercely.

• 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

  Early adopters of cigarettes were the wealthy, who sought to emulate the affectations of European society, and who had regular interactions with the European expatriate community in Iran’s northern cities 

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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.

• 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 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 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 vi. 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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• SOLAYMĀNI, Ātajān Peyrow

  Keith Hitchins

  (1899-1933), Tajik poet who blended the classical traditions of Tajik-Persian verse with the social themes of the new Soviet Central Asia of the 1920s and early 1930s.

• SOLṬĀN WALAD

  Cross-Reference

  13th-14th-century Sufi shaikh and poet, son and eventual successor of Mawlānā Jalāl-al-Din Rumi(Mawlawi). See BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN SOLṬĀN WALAD.

• SORUSHIAN, Jamshid

  Carlo G. Cereti

  (1914-1999), a Zoroastrian community leader and author.

• SOUR CHERRY

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀLBĀLŪ.

• SOUR GRAPE jUICE

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀB-ḠŪRA.

• SOUTH PERSIA RIFLES

  Floreeda Safiri

  (SPR), a locally recruited militia, commanded by British officers, and operating in the provinces of Fārs and Kermān from 1916 to 1921.

• SOUTHEAST ASIA i. PERSIAN PRESENCE IN

  M. Ismail Marcinkowski

  Attention will be given to some of the most striking features of the Persian influences on Southeast Asian Islamic culture.

• SOUTHEAST ASIA ii. SHIʿITES IN

  M. Ismail Marchinkowski

  Along with Sufism, Shiʿite elements too entered Malay-Indonesian Islam, certainly by way of southern India, where it was well represented.

• SPĀHBED

  Rika Gyselen

   Sasanian title that denoted a high military rank and meant  ‘chief of an army, general.’

• SPEAR

  Boris A. Litvinsky

  (Av. aršti- ‘spear,’ OPers. aršti ‘throwing weapon’ or ‘javelin’) is mentioned in the Avesta several times.

• SPIEGEL, FRIEDRICH (VON)

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  (1820 -1905), German orientalist and scholar of Iranian studies.

• SPULER, Bertold

  Werner Ende, Bert Fragner, Dagmar Riedel

  (1911-1990), German scholar of East European history and Oriental studies.

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• STAMPS

  Cross-Reference

  see PHILATELY. 

• STANZAIC POETRY

  Gabrielle van den Berg

  Stanzaic verse forms have been part of the corpus of classical Persian poetry from the early stage onwards and have continued to play a role until modern times.  Though the quantity of stanzaic poetry in Persian literature is modest in comparison to other verse forms, a few examples of this genre have obtained widespread fame and an iconic value in Persian culture and society.

• STARK, FREYA Madeline

  Malise Ruthven

  British travel-writer.  Her 1934 book The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels belongs to the canon of English travel literature.

• STEEL INDUSTRY IN IRAN

  Willem Floor

   In 1927, plans were drawn up to establish smelting works in the north of the country to produce rail tracks domestically.

• STEIN, (Marc) Aurel

  Susan Whitfield

  , Sir, Hungarian–British archeologist and explorer (b. Pest, Hungary, 26 November 1862; d. Kabul, 28 October 1943).