Table of Contents

• ZABĀN-E ZANĀN

  Nassereddin Parvin

  a newspaper and a magazine published in Isfahan and Tehran, respectively, by Ṣeddiqa Dawlatābādi (1883-1961), a pioneer advocate of women’s rights in Iran (18 July, 1919 to 1 January, 1921, a total of 57 issues).

• ZĀDSPRAM

  Philippe Gignoux

  a 9th-century Zoroastrian scholar and author. He was one of the four sons of Gušn-Jam (or Juwānjam, according to Boyce and Cereti).

• ZĀDUYA

  Touraj Daryaee

  a Persian noble in the 7th century CE who was instrumental in the crowning of Farroḵzād Ḵosrow as Sasanian king.

• ẒAHIR-AL-DAWLA, EBRĀHIM KHAN

  Mehrnoush Soroush

  (d. Tehran, 1240/1824), military leader and governor of Kermān under Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar.

• ZĀL

  A. Shapur Shahbazi and Simone Cristoforetti

  legendary prince of Sistān, father of Rostam, and a leading figure in Iranian traditional history. His story is given in the Šāh-nāma.

• ZAMYĀD YAŠT

  Pallan Ichaporia

  Yašt 19, the last in sequence of the great pieces of the Yašt hymn collection of the Younger Avesta.

• ZAND DYNASTY

  John Perry

  a dynasty that ruled in Persia (excluding Khorasan) from Shiraz, from the time when Nāder Shah’s (r. 1736-47) successors, the Afsharids, failed to recover western Persia until the founding of the Qajar dynasty by Āḡā Moḥammad Khan Qajar (r. 1779-97).

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• ZĀR

  Maria Sabaye Moghaddam

  harmful wind (bād) associated with spirit possession beliefs in southern coastal regions of Iran. People believe in the existence of winds that can be either vicious or peaceful, believer (Muslim) or non-believer (infidel).

• ZARANGIANA

  Cross-Reference

  territory around Lake Hāmun and the Helmand river in modern Sistān. See DRANGIANA.

• ZARATHUSTRA

  Cross-Reference

  the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose transformation of his inherited religion inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the triumph of Islam. See ZOROASTER.

• ZARINAIA

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  legendary Saka queen during the reign of the likewise legendary Median king Astibaras.

• ZARIRI, ʿAbbās

  Jalil Doostkhah

  (b. Isfahan 1909; d. Isfahan 1971) noted story-teller (naqqāl). Zariri like most other eulogists of his era, was functionally illiterate. He memorized and recited whatever he heard from other storytellers and scroll-writers. However, he became literate towards the end of his life.

• ŻARRĀBI, MOLUK

  Erik Naḵjavāni

  the stage name of Moluk Faršforuš Kāšāni (b. Kāšān, ca 1289 Š./1910; d. Tehran, 1378 Š./1999), Persian singer and actress. Moluk was born into a musically inclined family.

• ZARUDNIĬ, NIKOLAĬ ALEKSEEVICH

  Natalia Ananjeva

  (1859-1919), prominent zoologist and explorer of fauna in Iran. Between 1884 and 1904, he conducted field trips in the Caspian region, the plains of Bukhara, the Khiva (Ḵiva) oasis, and northern and eastern Persia. More than 130 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, arthropods, and mollusks were named after him.

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• ZĀYANDARUD newspaper

  Nassereddin Parvin

  weekly newspaper published in Isfahan by ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Mo ʿin-al-Eslām Ḵᵛānsāri from 1 RabiʿI 1327 to 22 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1333 (23 March 1909 to 31 October 1915).

• ZĀYČA

  Enrico G. Raffaelli

  Middle Persian term meaning "birth chart, horoscope."

• ZAYN AL-AḴBĀR

  Cross-Reference

  a history written in 11th century by Gardizi. See GARDIZI. 

• ZEǏMAL’, Evegeniǐ Vladislavovich

  Alexander Nikitin

  (1932-1998), Russian numismatist and historian of ancient Iran and Central Asia.

• ZEFRA

  Multiple Authors

  ZEFRA, mountainous district and village northeast of Isfahan, best known for its dialect.  This article is divided into two sections: i. The district   ii. The dialect

• ZEFRA i. The District

  Mohammad-Hasan Raja’i Zefra’i and Habib Borjian

  mountainous district and village northeast of Isfahan.

• ẒELLI, REZĀQOLI MIRZĀ

  Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi

  (1906-1945), singer. He had a clear voice with wide range, which his distinct, beautiful yodeling (taḥrir) made especially enchanting. His singing is an example of the Tehran singing school. He died of tuberculosis.

• ZEMESTĀN-E 62

  ʿAli Ferdowsi

  (Winter of 62, 1987), a novel published by the well-known and prolific Persian novelist Esmāʿil Fasih.

• ZENDA BE GUR

  SOHILA SAREMI

  short story by the 20th-century writer, Sadeq Hedayat, in a collection of the same title.

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• ZHUKOVSKIĬ, Valentin Alekseevich

  Firuza Abdullaeva

  (1858-1918), one of the most prominent representatives of Russian, namely St. Petersburg, Oriental studies. The scholarly interests of Zhukovskiĭ were extremely wide, covering the whole range of subjects from dialectology and folklore to archeology. His archives contain papers on many different subjects; some of them still await publication.

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• ŻIĀʾ-AL-SALṬANA

  Dominic Parviz Brookshaw

  , Šāh Begom (1799-1873), seventh daughter of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834), private secretary to him, calligrapher and poet.

• ZIGGURAT

  Michael Herles

  (Akkadian ziqqurratu  “temple-tower”), a tower consisting of several stages, on whose uppermost platform existed in all probability a high temple (Roaf, pp. 104-105). 

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• ZIYARIDS

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (Āl-e Ziār), a minor Islamic dynasty of the Caspian coastlands (931-ca. 1090).  They ruled first in northern Iran, and then in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān.

• ZODIAC

  Antonio Panaino

  a circle, oblique with respect to the equator, represented on the celestial sphere and divided into twelve equal parts, conventionally of 30° each.

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• ẒOHUR-AL-ḤAQQ

  Moojan Momen

  (also called Tāriḵ-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq and Ketāb-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq) the most comprehensive history of the first century of the Bahai faith yet written, compiled in nine volumes by Mirzā Asad-Allāh,

• ZOROASTER

  Multiple Authors

  the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose transformation of his inherited religion inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the triumph of Islam. 

• ZOROASTER i. THE NAME

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  The authentic form of Zoroaster’s name is that attested in his own songs, the Gathas: Old Av. Zaraθuštra-, on which are based regular derivatives like zaraθuštri- “descending from Zoroaster."

• ZOROASTER ii. GENERAL SURVEY

  W. W. Malandra

  “Zoroaster” is the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose transformation of his inherited religion inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the triumph of Islam.

• ZOROASTER iii. ZOROASTER IN THE AVESTA

  Manfred Hutter

  Zaraθuštra is considered the founder of the Mazdayasnian religion who lived in Eastern Iran during the end of the second millenium BCE.

• ZOROASTER iv. AS PERCEIVED BY THE GREEKS

  Roger Beck

  The Greek constructions of Zoroaster relate to the historical Zoroaster and to the Zoroaster of the Zoroastrian faith in one respect only. The Greeks knew that Zoroaster was the “prophet,” in the sense of the human founder, of the national Persian religion of their times.

• ZOROASTER v. AS PERCEIVED IN WESTERN EUROPE

  Michael Stausberg

  There is a continuous tradition of reports about Zoroaster among early and later medieval Christian historians, chroniclers, and annalists. In slightly modified form, this tradition continues through the early modern periods stretching from Humanism to Enlightenment.

• ZOROASTER vi. AS PERCEIVED BY LATER ZOROASTRIANS

  Jenny Rose

  This entry treats the development of the concept and image of Zoroaster among the Zoroastrians of Persia and India after the Islamic conquest (10th century onwards).

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• ZOROASTRIANISM i. HISTORICAL REVIEW

  William W. Malandra

  This article presents an overview of the history of Zoroastrianism from its beginnings through the 9th and 10th centuries CE. Details of different periods and specific issues relating to Zoroastrianism are discussed in the relevant separate entries.

• ZRANKA

  Cross-Reference

  territory around Lake Hāmun and the Helmand river in modern Sistan. See DRANGIANA.

• ZUR-ḴĀNA

  Houchang E. Chehabi

  (lit. “house of strength”), the traditional gymnasium of urban Persia and adjacent lands.

• ZURWĀNDĀD

  Touraj Daryaee

  the eldest son of the grand vizier (wuzurg framādār) Mehr Narseh, who appointed him to the high religious office of chief hērbed.

• Z~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Cross-Reference

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