Table of Contents

  • 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.

  • WIDENGREN, GEO

    Anders Hultgård

    (b. 24 April 1907; d. 28 January 1996), historian of religions, particularly those of the ancient Near East and Iran.

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  • WIKANDER, Oscar Stig

    Bo Utas; Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin

    Wikander soon became known as a brilliant young scholar with wide interests and a deep knowledge of many fields. In 1935 and 1936, he and Geo Widengren (1907-1996) were among the members of the Avesta seminars, held by his older compatriot, the professor of Semitic languages at Uppsala University, H. S. Nyberg (1889-1974).

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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.

  • WISDOM LITERATURE

    Cross-Reference

    See  ANDARZ, APHORISM, IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (1) Pre-Islamic.

  • WIZĀRIŠN Ī ČATRANG UD NIHIŠN Ī NĒW-ARDAXŠĪR

    Antonio Panaino

    a minor Pahlavi text on chess and backgammon.

  • WOLFF, FRITZ

    Jürgen Ehlers

    (1880-1943), German Iranologist and the author of Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • WOLSKI, JÓZEF

    Marek Jan Olbrycht

    distinguished Polish historian, whose research has had an enduring effect on the study of ancient Iranian history.

  • 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.

  • WOMEN ii. In the Avesta

    Leon Goldman

    The egalitarian ideals of Zoroastrianism—in particular, the recognition of women as “men’s partners in the common struggle against evil” have long served to protect the dignified status of women within the Mazdayasnian community.

  • WOMEN iii. In Shiʿism

    Moojan Momen

    In theory, Shiʿism has a more favorable attitude towards women than Sunni Islam. These favorable differences are largely annulled, however, by some specific Shiʿite practices as well as the social realities of women’s lives in Shiʿite communities. 

  • WOMEN iv. in the works of the Bab and in the Babi Movement

    Moojan Momen

    The Bab elevated the status of women in his writings and confirmed this in his actions. The Babi community reflected this change in the actions of the Babi women.

  • WOOL

    Willem Floor

    (Pers. pašm), the oldest fiber to have been used for the making of textiles in Persia. Archeological finds have shown that sheep wool and goat hair were already woven around 6500 BCE, although some doubt this data. Spinning whorls and warp weights dating from 5000 BCE have also been found.

  • W~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

    Cross-Reference

    list of all the figure and plate images in the W entries