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• AZERBAIJAN viii. Azeri Turkish

  G. Doerfer

  Oghuz languages were earlier grouped into Turkish (of Turkey), Azeri, and Turkmen, but recent research has modified this simple picture.

• JAMʿIYAT-E MOʾTALEFA-YE ESLĀMI ii. Jamʿiyat-e Moʾtalefa and the Islamic Revolution

  Ali Rahnema

  After the 1979 Revolution, the “Coalition of Islamic Mourning Groups” changed its expressive and meaningful name to the rather awkward appellation of Jamʿiyat-e moʾtalefa-ye eslāmi (the Society of Islamic Coalition).

• ECONOMY i. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

  Xavier de Planhol

  The high plateau and its external relations. The heartland of the Iranian world, encompassing both Persia and Afghanistan, is an arid high plateau, from which communication with the outside world is extraordinarily difficult.

• CERAMICS iii. The Neolithic Period in Central and Western Persia

  Peder Mortensen

  Present knowledge is based primarily on evidence from three excavated sites and from surveys carried out southwest of Harsīn, on the Māhī­dašt plain, and in the Holaylān valley.

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• KUHPĀYA ii. The Dialect

  Habib Borjian

  The dialects spoken in the Kuhpāya district belong to the Central Dialects, but in a narrower sense they are grouped together with the welāyati “provincial” idioms around the city of Isfahan.

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• Isfahan xv. EDUCATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

  Maryam Borjian and Habib Borjian

  The Lazarists, with the support of the prince-governor, founded in 1875 schools for both boys and girls and an infirmary. These appear to be the predecessors of the boys school L’Etoile du Matin and the girls school Rudāba.

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• GREAT BRITAIN i. INTRODUCTION

  EIr

  During the 16th century, several unsuccessful attempts were made by the Muscovy (or Russia) Company of London to develop trade between London and Persia via Russia.

• COURTS AND COURTIERS vii. In the Qajar period

  Abbas Amanat

  The court (darbār, darbār-e aʿẓam, dar(b)-e ḵāna) in the Qajar period was essentially organized on the ancient Perso-Turkish model inherited from the Safavid and Zand courts but with modifications in practice and function largely designed to accommo­date the Qajars’ nomadic habits.

• TURKIC LANGUAGES OF PERSIA: AN OVERVIEW

  Michael Knüppel

  Only in few other regions (Caucasus and Southern Siberia) one can find a nearly comparable diversity of Turkic languages as in Persia. The number of their speakers varies from several thousands to several millions.

• ḎARĪʿA elā TAṢĀNĪF al-ŠĪʿA

  Etan Kohlberg

  a comprehensive bibliography of Imami Shiʿite works in twenty-five volumes compiled by Shaikh Moḥammad-Moḥsen Āqā Bozorg Ṭehrānī (1876-1970); it contains about 55,000 entries for works written up to 1950-51.

• GEORGIA iii. Iranian elements in Georgian art and archeology

  Gocha R. Tsetskhladze

  Ancient Georgian tribes had close cultural contacts with Near Eastern civilizations from the 18th century BCE. Iranian elements appeared from the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E., as they did in the art of the entire Caucasian region.

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• CYRUS vi. Cyrus the Younger

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  (ca. 423-01 b.c.e.),  the second of the four sons of Darius II (ca. 424-05) and Parysatis and a younger brother of Arsaces/Arsicas, later Artaxerxes II (405/4-359/8).

• GĪLĀN vi. History in the 18th century

  EIr and Reza Rezazadeh Langaroudi

  The rapid decline of the Safavids in the first decades of the 18th century, leading to their ultimate demise in 1722, created a general state of chaos in the country.

• BOSḤĀQ AṬʿEMA

  Heshmat Moayyad

  (d. 1420s), FAḴR-AL-DĪN ḤALLĀJ ŠĪRĀZĪ, satirical poet who used Persian culinary vocabulary and imagery and kitchen terminology to create a novel style of poetry.

• ʿEBRAT, Sayyed MOḤAMMAD-QĀSEM

  Munibur Rahman

  author of ʿEbrat-nāma, a history of the reigns of Awrangzēb’s successors to 1723.

• EDUCATION x. MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

  Aḥmad Bīrašk

  Modern secondary education in Persia was originally based on the 19th-century European humanistic system, focused on general knowledge and building character rather than on professional or vocational training. This philosophy dominated the Persian system until the 1960s, when reforms were introduced by American advisers.

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• Isfahan xii. BAZAAR: PLAN AND FUNCTION

  Willem Floor

  It is one of the best-preserved examples of a large, enclosed, and covered bazaar complex that was typical of most cities in the Muslim world prior to the 20th century. The oldest areas of the present-day bazaar date from the early 17th century; its first stone was laid in 1603.

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• ISMAʿILISM iii. ISMAʿILI HISTORY

  Farhad Daftary

  On the death of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq in 148/765 his followers from among the Imami Shiʿites split into six groups, of which two may be identified as proto-Ismaʿilis or earliest Ismaʿilis.

• POLAND iii. Iranian Studies in Poland

  Anna Krasnowolska

  The development of Iranian studies in Poland was preceded by some nonscholarly interest in Persian language and culture.

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• BAMPUR ia. PREHISTORIC SITE (Continued)

  Daniel T. Potts

  Since Beatrice de Cardi’s excavations in 1966 (de Cardi, 1968; idem, 1970) no new work has taken place there. Nevertheless, objects recovered at Bampur in the 1960s can now be better dated and understood, thanks to discoveries in recent years at sites in Central Asia, the Indo-Iranian borderlands, and southeastern Arabia..

• ECONOMY v. FROM THE ARAB CONQUEST TO THE END OF THE IL-KHANIDS (part 3)

  Ann K. S. Lambton

  As the needs of the state grew, there was a constant shortage of specie to meet its expenses. As a result of the devastation and demographic decline brought about by the invasions, there was less land under cultivation and fewer people engaged in agriculture.

• SACRIFICE i. IN ZOROASTRIANISM

  William W. Malandra

  At least since the publication of the seminal essay by Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss much of the discussion has been devoted to a search for what essentially defines sacrifice.

• GĪLĀN i. GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

  Marcel Bazin

  Gīlān includes the northwestern end of the Alborz chain and the western part of the Caspian lowlands of Persia. The mountainous belt is cut through by the deep transversal valley of the Safīdrūd between Manjīl and Emāmzāda Hāšem near Rašt. 

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• INDIA xxvi. MUTUAL MUSICAL INFLUENCES

  cross-reference

    See under MUSIC.

• EDUCATION ix. PRIMARY SCHOOLS

  Sayyed ʿAlī Āl-e Dāwūd

  At first primary and secondary schools were not distinct, and the primary levels sometimes consisted of only four grades. There were no general instructional materials and no uniform curriculum, each school being under the direction of its founder or principal.

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• MALABĀRI, BEHRĀMJI MERWĀNJI

  Firoze M. Kotwal and Jamsheed K. Choksy

  Malabari began his journalistic and editorial career after Sir Cowasji Jehangir, an eminent Parsi businessman, introduced him to Martin Woods, then the editor of the Times of India. Malabari also began writing a serial column for the Indian Spectator, an English language weekly magazine.

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• KAYĀNIĀN xiv. The Kayanids in Western Historiography

  Prods Oktor Skjærvø

  Henry C. Rawlinson contrasted the “distorted and incomplete allusions to Jemshíd and the Kayanian monarchs” with “authentic history,” and Friedrich Spiegel called the Kayanids partly purely mythical, partly legendary.

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• IRAQ vi. PAHLAVI PERIOD, 1921-79

  Mohsen M. Milani

  Relations between Iran and Iraq underwent three different phases between 1921, when Britain installed Faysal Ibn Hossein as king of a newly formed nation-state of Iraq and 1979, when the Pahlavi dynasty was swept away by revolution.

• Isfahan x. Monuments (3) Mosques

  Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

  Isfahan is known historically for its large number of mosques. According to Abu Noʿaym of Isfahan, the first large mosque in Isfahan was built during the Caliphate of Imam ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (r. 656-61). The French traveler Jean Chardin counted 162 mosques during his travels to Isfahan in the middle of the 17th century.

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• GILAN xvii. Gender Relations

  Christian Bromberger

  In Gilan roles and tasks are distributed according to a more flexible pattern: to a large extent, women take an important part in agricultural work; in their homes, the line between male and female spaces is blurred; craftwork, industrial, and commercial activities are not the exclusive prerogative of men in this region.

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• ART IN IRAN vi. PRE-ISLAMIC EASTERN IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA

  G. Azarpay

  Monumental works of art of the pre-Islamic age are there evidenced only from the early medieval period that corresponds with the Parthian and Sasanian dynasties in Iran.

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• HISTORIOGRAPHY vi. SAFAVID PERIOD

  Sholeh Quinn

  Safavid historiography, although developing unique features of its own, had its origins in the eastern Timurid tradition that was centered in Herāt.

• HAFEZ xiii. - xiv. HAFEZ’S TOMB (ḤĀFEẒIYA)

  Kuros Kamali Sarvestani

  The Hafeziya is located south of the Koran Gate (Darvāza-ye Qorʾān) on the northern edge of Shiraz. It is on the site of the famous Golgašt-e Moṣallā, the pleasure ground often mentioned in the poems of Hafez.

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• GERMANY vi. Collections and Study of Persian Art in Germany

  Jens Kröger

  From the 19th century on, Persian works of art were collected systematically to acquire knowledge of the world and to educate and inspire artists and craftsmen. Collecting, exhibiting, and studying Persian art reached an unprecedented scale in the 20th century.

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• ANṢARĪ, ʿALĪ-QOLĪ KHAN

  M. Kasheff

  MOŠĀWER-AL-MAMĀLEK (1868-1940), a career diplomat under the late Qajars. 

• INDIA xxiii. INDIAN INFLUENCE ON PERSIAN CINEMA

  cross-reference

  See x, above.

• GILĀN xiv. Ethnic Groups

  Christian Bromberger

  Each group living in the province is characterized by one or several specific production activities, so that an ethnonym refers as much to territorial, linguistic, and cultural roots as to any dominant professional specialization.

• KAYĀNIĀN ix. Kauui Vištāspa, Kay Wištāsp, Kay Beštāsb/Goštāsb

  Prods Oktor Skjærvø

  The name Vištāspa presumably means “he who gives the horses free rein” (víṣitāso áśvāḥ “horses let loose or given free rein”), which agrees with the description of Vištāspa as the prototypical winner of the chariot race in Yašt 5.132.

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• ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI i. Life

  Anna Livia Beelaert

  (1127-1186/1199), major Persian poet and prose writer.

• ISFAHAN vii. SAFAVID PERIOD

  Masashi Haneda and Rudi Matthee

  Isfahan came under Safavid rule in 1503 following Shah Esmāʿil’s defeat of Solṭān Morād, the Āq Qoyunlu ruler of Erāq-e ʿAjam, near Hamadān.

• ZOROASTER iv. In the Pahlavi Books

  A. V. Williams

  Although Pahlavi was spoken as long ago as the 3rd century BCE, most of the written works that survive were compiled from older Zoroastrian material in the period after the Muslim conquest up to the 10th century CE.

• ISLAM IN IRAN vii. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN TWELVER SHIʿISM

  Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

  Mahdism in Twelver Shiʿism inherited many of its elements from previous religious trends.

• BAHAISM xiii. Bahai Pioneers

  Moojan Momen

  “Pioneer” (in English) and mohājer (in Persian) are terms used in Bahai literature to designate those who leave their homes to settle in another locality with the intention of spreading the Bahai faith or supporting existing Bahai communities.

• HERODOTUS v. CAMBYSES ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS

  Robert Rollinger

  Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, is first described by Herodotus at a time when his father’s reign was already about to end.

• HISTORIOGRAPHY i. INTRODUCTION

  Elton Daniel

  Historiography, literally, is the study not of history but of the writing of history. In modern usage, this term covers a wide range of related but distinct areas of inquiry.

• DĀMḠĀNĪ (1)

  EIr

  nesba of a leading family of jurists of Persian origin, descendants of Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad Kabīr (b. Dāmḡān 1007, d. Baghdad 1085), a well-known exponent of Hanafite law, who served as the chief magistrate (qāżī al-qożāt) of Baghdad.

• HAFEZ viii. HAFEZ AND RENDI

  Franklin Lewis

  Rend, variously translated in English as “rake, ruffian, pious rogue, brigand, libertine, lout, debauchee,” is the very antithesis of establishment propriety.

• BAHMAN (3)

  cross-reference

  author of Qeṣṣa-ye Sanjān.

• GEOGRAPHY ii. Human geography

  Xavier de Planhol

  The primordial component of the land of Iran, since it was a sedentary world as opposed to the nomadic Tūrān, must have been situated above the level of the internal steppes and deserts, in the highland river valleys having both arable alluvial soils and plenty of water from the rainfall in the mountains.

• GERMANY ii. Archeological excavations and studies

  Dietrich Huff

  The first Germans who reported on the historical and archeological monuments of the ancient Persian world, were, as in other nations, adventurers and travelers of a different kind. 

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