ii. The Tree The quince tree, Cydonia vulgaris Pers. (= C. cydonia Pers., Pyrus cydonia L., etc.), a native of…

A great confusion or indetermination reigns in the taxonomy of Salix L. in Iran. The following inventory is based on…

CARACAL (Felis caracal Schreber = Lynx caracal, Caracal caracal; Figure 1), also called “desert lynx” or “Persian lynx”; in Persian,…

References to Čakāvak as title of a melody (Pers. navā, Ar. laḥn, naḡma, etc.) are found in classical Persian lexicons…

Of the nineteen species of lark (family Alaudidae, order Passeriformes) recorded by Hüe and Étchécopar for the Near and Middle…

i. The Bird The term bolbol is applied to at least three species of the genus Luscinia (fam. Turdidae): L….

i. The Plant A native of Africa, okra has long been naturalized and extensively cultivated in some countries neighboring Iran,…

HAZELNUT (fandoq), the hard-shelled fruit of the shrub (or small tree) Corylus avellana L. (fam. Corylaceae), containing an edible kernel…

BALŪṬ (Middle Persian balūt and Arabic ballūṭ from Aram. bāloṭ/belūṭā; see Mashkour, p. 82), common designation in New Persian both…

BANAFŠA (Mid. Pers. wanafšag, arabicized as banafsaj; cf. the cognate Kurd. wunawša, Māzandarāni vanūše, Semnāni benowša, etc., and the Armenian…

BĀQELĀ (also pronounced bāqālā or bāqālī; in Arabic texts, bāqellā[ʾ], broad beans, i.e., the grains of Vicia faba L. Older…

BĀZ (Mid. Pers. bāz; for the controversial etymology of this word, see Schapka, s.v.), a common name formerly applied to…

GALBANUM (Pers. bārīja, bārzad), a slightly bitter odorous gum resin obtained from several Asian umbelliferous plants (especially the genera Ferula…

GĀV-ZABĀN (lit. ”ox-tongue,” in reference to the rough, tongue-shaped leaves of the plant), the popular designation for several medicinal species…

HONEY (ʿasal, Ar. term now the most common name for honey in Persia; archaic Pers. angobin < Mid. Pers. angubēn,…

HENNA (Pers. ḥanā,Ar. ḥennāʾ), a russet or orange dye obtained from the pulverized leaves of the henna plant, Lawsonia alba…

BASIL, Ocimum L. ssp. (fam. Labiatae), now commonly called rayḥān in Persian, an aromatic plant. The word basil goes back…

RYE (čāvdār), Secale cereale L. (fam. Gramineae). The Persian name is probably of Turkish origin. Schlimmer (1874) has recorded the…

JUJUBE, ʿonnāb (Ar.; usually prnounced annāb in Pers.), the edible drupe of the jujube tree Ziziphus jujuba Miller (= Z….

FRUIT, mīva (Mid. Pers. mēwag). This article presents mainly some general points and statistics about fruits in Persia-past and present;…

GOL (gul), rose (Rosa L. spp.) and, by extension, flower, bloom, blossom. ROSES I. Etymology. Mid. Pers. gul (< *wṛda-)…

GOLĀB (< gol-āb; Arabicized as jol[l]āb), rose water, a distillate (ʿaraq) obtained chiefly from the gol-e moḥammadi (see GOL), the…

GOLPAR, any of several perennial aromatic herbaceous plants of the genus Heracleum L. (fam. Umbelliferae) growing wild in humid alpine…

JORJĀNI, ZAYN-AL-DIN ESMĀʿIL b. Ḥasan, better known as Sayyed Esmāʿil Jorjāni (b. Gorgān, 1043-44?; d. Marv, 1136-37), physician who served…

FISH iii. IN PRE-ISLAMIC PERSIAN LORE The Bundahišn (q.v.) contains interesting pseudo-scientific, mythical, and sometimes inconsistent information about fishes. The…

BĀZDĀRĪ (or bāzyārī, lit. “bāz keeping,” now an obsolete Persian term), falconry, as a practical art and as a sport….

BEANS. This term is used in English in a wide sense to designate several plants (and their seeds) of different…

BEAVER, Castor fiber L., semiaquatic mammalian rodent, in Persian commonly called sag-e ābī (lit. “aquatic dog”), no longer extant in…

BEECH, Fagus L. The species found in Iran was previously presented as the same as the common European beech, F….

BEET, Beta vulgaris L., commonly called čoḡondar in Persian (variant forms found in some older texts: čokondar/čogondar, čondar; cf. Māzandarānī…

BELDERČĪN (quail, Coturnix coturnix L.; fam. Phasianidae). The wide distribution of the quail in the Near and Middle East (see…

BIRCH. The genus Betula L. in Iran has been variously identified as B. alba L. (e.g., Sāʿī, I, p. 187;…

BOXTREE, Buxus L. spp., šemšād, common name for numerous species of evergreen shrubs or trees of the family Buxaceae. The…

BŪF or BŪM, owl, commonly called joḡd. Of the thirteen species of Strigiformes reported by Hüe and Étchécopar (pp. 401-19)…

TURKEY or BŪQALAMŪN (in verse also būqalmūn), short for abūqalamūn, arabicized from Gk. hupokálamon (see Dozy, I, pp. 6-7, s.v….

BUSTARD, any of a family (Otididae) of game birds of which three species, generally called hūbar(r)a in contemporary Persian, occur…

BŪTĪMĀR, a semilegendary aquatic bird, also called ḡamḵᵛorak (lit. “the little griever”) according to some lexicographers, usually equated with Ar….

CABBAGE (Pers. kalam) Brassica oleracea L. vars. The word kalam (and its obsolete variant karam; see below) seems to be…

CAMEL THORN (Alhagi Adans. spp.), common name for wild thorny suffrutescent plants of the Papilionaceae family, called šotor-ḵār and ḵār-e…

CAMPHOR (NPers. kāfūr; Mid. Pers. kāpūr, perhaps directly from Malay kāpūr; but cf. Sogd. kpwr “camphor” < Prakrit kappūra-, Sims-Williams,…

CARDAMOM, hel in modern Persian (earlier hīl; arabicized as hāl; from Skt. elā), the aromatic seeds of several plants of…

CARROT, the taproot of Daucus L. subspp., etc. (family Umbelliferae), traditionally called gazar (arabicized as jazar) or zardak (lit. “the…

CASSIA, a genus of shrubs and trees of the family Leguminosae (or Caesalpiniaceae in some classifications). This article deals only…

CAVIAR, ḵāvīar in Persian, the processed non-fertilized roe of sturgeons (q.v.) and some other large fishes, highly valued as a…

ČENĀR, the “Oriental plane (tree),” Platanus orientalis L. (fam. Platanaceae). This species of plane is indigenous from southeastern Europe to…

CITRUS FRUITS (Pers. morakkabāt). As far as Persia is concerned, only the citrus trees and fruits of the genus Citrus…

COCONUT (nārgīl < Mid. Pers. anārgēl < Skt. nārīkel/ra; cf. Hindi and Urdu nāriyal “coconut”), the fruit of the palm…

CORAL, the skeletal deposit of marine polyps, often treated as a gem material. In classical Persian it was called bossad…

CORIANDER, Coriandrum sativum L. (Mid. Pers. k/gišnīz, NPers. gešnīz, Kurd. kešneš, Taj. kašnīj/z, Bal. kīnīč and gēnīč, Rīšahri, gešnī, Azeri…

CORNELIAN CHERRY, the male cornel tree, a dogwood shrub with edible berries. Three species of cornel (genus Cornus L., fam….

CRANE (kolang < Mid. Pers. kulang; Orm. and Par. kolang; Morgenstierne, pp. 266, 398; cf. Kurmanji Kurdish [ḡāz] qoleng, qoreng,…

CROCUS, generic name of a large number of hardy bulbous flowering plants of the family Iridaceae. Per Wendelbo and Brian…

CROW, a bird of the family Corvidae, represented in Persia and Afghanistan by six genera (Garrulus, Pica, Nucifraga, Podoces, Pyrrhocorax,…

CUMIN (Pers. zīra, Ar. kammūn; Cuminum cyminum L.), an umbelliferous plant of the Old World and its aromatic seeds. In…

CYPRESS (sarv), Cupressus (Tourn.) L. The genus Cupressus is represented in Persia by one spe­cies (sempervirens L.), with three varieties:…

DĀRČĪNĪ (i.e., dār-e čīnī, lit., “Chinese tree/wood,” < Mid. Pers. *dār ī čēnīg; cf. Arm. lw. daričenik; Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik,…

DATE PALM (deraḵt-e ḵormā, naḵl; Phoenix dactylifera L., fam. Palmaceae), dioecious tree of great economic and cultural importance in Persia…

DAVĀL-PĀ(Y), or dovāl-pā (colloq. dūāl-pā;Kurdish dolpā; Kermānī dohol-pā), an imaginary evil anthropoid creature characterized by flexible legs (pā) resembling leather…

TREE or shrub in English and is designated in N. Pers. deraḵt and Mid. Pers. draxt. Two other words for “tree”…

DILL (ševed, ševīd, šebet, etc.), Anethum graveolens L. (fam. Umbellifera), an herb widely cultivated in Persia. The main use of…

ḎORRAT, maize or (Indian) corn, Zea mays L. (fam. Gramineae), with many varieties and hybrids (see Ṭabāṭabāʾī, pp. 140-62). Terminology….

DUCK (moṟḡābī < moṟḡ-e ābī “aquatic fowl” or ordak < Turk. ördäk), technically any species of the family Anatidae but…

EBN AL-BAYṬĀR, ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN ABŪ MOḤAMMAD ʿABD-ALLĀH b. Aḥmad (not Aḥmad-al-Dīn as in EI ² III, p. 737), Andalusian botanist and…

ELM, any of several species of hardy deciduous ornamental or forest trees of the genus Ulmus L. (fam. Ulmaceae), typically…

ENCYCLOPAEDIAS, PERSIAN Pre-modern. In Persia, as in other Islamicized lands, the notion of an encyclopaedia developed out of the “need…

FĀḴTA, an obsolete Persian name (older *fāḵtak/g;cf. the pl. fāḵtagān; arabicized as fāḵeta, pl. fawāḵet; see also Schapka, no. 577,…

FELFEL (arabicized from archaic Pers. pelpel < Skt. pippalī, which designated both the vine and the berries of Piper longum…

FENNEL (rāzīāna <*rāzīānag, arabicized as rāzīānaj), the aromatic sweetish potherb and medicinal plant Foeniculum vulgare Mill. (= Anethum foeniculum L.,…

FIG (anjīr), the “fruit” of several species and subspecies of Ficus L. (fam. Moraceae) in the geobotanical area covered by…

FISH ii.SALT WATER FISHES This article deals mainly with the most economically important or otherwise remarkable fishes (except the caviar-yielding…

CUCUMBER, Cucumis sativus L. (of the family Cucurbitaceae), in Persia generally called ḵīār (with occasional slight variants), a term that…

i. The Greco-Islamic Tradition In the Islamic period, generally speaking, botany was an ancillary branch of medicine or, more precisely,…

FISHERIES (ŠĪLĀT) AND FISHING.There was no real fishing organization in Persia until the second half of the 19th century when…