Table of Contents

• 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.