Table of Contents

• WAKIL-AL-RAʿĀYĀ

  John Perry

  regnal title assumed by Karim Khan Zand (r. 1164-93/1751-79) after he established himself at Shiraz in 1765. It is recorded in variants wakil-al-raʿiya, wakil-e raʿiat, and wakil-al-ḵalāʾeq, all meaning “deputy of the people.”

• WAKIL-al-RAʿĀYĀ, Ḥāji Shaikh Taqi Irāni

  John R. Perry

  (1868-1939), a prominent merchant and the Majles deputy of Hamadān, who, in October 1906, was the first provincial deputy to take his place in the First Majles (parliament) to be established after the Constitutional Revolution.

• WALDMAN, Marilyn

  Dick Davis

  (b. Dallas, Texas, April 13th 1943-d. Columbus, Ohio, July 8th, 1996), scholar of Islamic history.

• WAR KABUD

  Bruno Overlaet

  an archeological site to the north of Čavār in Ilām Province (Pošt-e kuh, Lorestān). Two hundred and three individual tombs of a large plundered graveyard (more than 1,000 tombs estimated to have been plundered) were excavated in 1965 and 1966. They all date to the Iron Age III (ca. 800/750-600 BCE).

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• WARŠTMĀNSR NASK

  Cross-Reference

  See SŪDGAR NASK AND WARŠTMĀNSR NASK.

• WAṢF

  A. A. Seyed-Gohrab

  a literary term meaning “description;” but it can carry several other connotations, including “quality,” “attribute,” “characterization,” “distinguishing mark,” and “adjective.”

• WATER

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀB.

• WAṬWĀṬ, RAŠID-AL-DIN

  Natalia Chalisova

  bilingual poet, philologist, and prose writer in Persian and Arabic, as well as a high-ranking official of the Khwarazmian court in the 12th century.

• WAZIRITABĀR, Ḥosayn-ʿAli

  Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi

  (1906-1958) musician and prominent performer of the qaranei (clarinet). 

• WEBLOGS

  Alireza Doostdar

  The vast majority of Iranian bloggers write in Persian, although other languages – chief among them English – are also used.

• WEIGHTS AND MEASURES i. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

  A. D. H. Bivar

  The standard unit of weight in the ancient Middle East was the shekel (šiqlu), best known from that of the Babylonian standard.

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• WERTIME, Theodore

  Roya Arab

  (b. Chambersburg, Pa., 31 August 1919; d. Chambersburg, 8 April 1982), diplomat and scholar, expert on the history of technology in the ancient Middle East.

• WHEAT

  Cross-Reference

  See GANDOM.

• WHITE SHEEP DYNASTY

  Cross-Reference

  A confederation of Turkman tribes who ruled in eastern Anatolia and western Iran until the Safavid conquest in 1501. See AQ QOYUNLU.
  

• WIKANDER, Oscar Stig

  Bo Utas; Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin

  (1908-1983), Iranist, comparatist, and historian of religions. Wikander was internationally active, and maintained lively contacts with leading scholars of religions.

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• WILD RUE

  Cross-Reference

  See ESFAND.

• WILD THYME

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀVĪŠAN.

• WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK

  Peter Jackson

  a Flemish Franciscan missionary who traveled through the lands that the Mongols had conquered in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Asia Minor between 1253 and 1255.

• WILLOW

  Cross-Reference

  See BĪD.

• WOMEN i. In Pre-Islamic Persia

  Maria Brosius

  To learn about women, we depend on the often hostile secondary sources of the Greek and Roman periods which, however, are of limited historical value, as they tend to focus on particular aspects of the lives of royal Persian women or use specific descriptions for historiographical purposes.