Table of Contents

  • ŻIĀʾ-AL-SALṬANA

    Dominic Parviz Brookshaw

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

  • ZIAPOUR, JALIL

    Nojan Medinei

    (1920-1999), painter, art critic, and scholar, who played a pioneering role in the establishment of modern arts in Iran.

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  • ZIGGURAT

    Michael Herles

    In Iran, buildings considered ziggurats or high temples can be distinguished from Mesopotamian ziggurats by their means of access.  External flights of steps are always missing from monumental buildings in Iran, yet they are at all times present in Mesopotamia.  In Iran, monumental buildings were accessible by ramps.

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  • ZIWIYE

    Oscar White Muscarella

    name of an archeological site in northwestern Iran at which a trove of objects known as the “Ziwiye Treasure” was reputedly found.

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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 abarestān and Gorgān.

  • ZODIAC

    Antonio Panaino

    The origin and development of the idea of a zodiacal circle have been much debated, but now there is a general consensus that a kind of zodiacal belt must have been defined by Babylonian astronomers as early as 700 BCE. In this period the “path” followed by the planets, sun, and moon was divided into 15 constellations.

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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,

  • ẒOHURI TORŠIZI

    Paul E. Losensky

    Mollā Nur-al-Din Moḥammad (d. 1025/1616), Persian poet.

  • 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."