CRYSTAL (bolūr “crystal, rock crystal”; see crystal, rock; also ābgīna, lit. “like water”; šīša “glass”), originally a type of fine…

CLOTHING x. In the Safavid and Qajar periods In the late 15th century the poet Neẓām-al-Dīn Maḥmūd Qārī (Neẓām Qārī)…

CARPETS x. Afsharid and Zand Periods The rug production of Persia in the Afsharid (1148-61/1736-48) and Zand periods (1163-1209/1750-79) has…

GOL O BOLBOL, rose and nightingale, a popular literary and decorative theme. i. In Persian literature. ii. As a decorative…

ʿAQD-NĀMA, contract, now specifically marriage contract; synonyms, qabāla-ye ezdewāǰ, paymān-nāma. Marriage contracts belong to the class of Islamic legal deeds…

NEGĀRESTĀN MUSEUM, a museum founded in Tehran in 1975, specializing in Iranian art of the 18th and 19th centuries. Introduction….

ENAMEL (Pers. mīnā, possibly a dialect form of mīnū < Mid. Pers. mēnōg “uncorporeal, spiritual, the world beyond, heaven” <…

KAMĀL-AL-MOLK, MOḤAMMAD ḠAFFĀRI (b. Tehran, , widely acclaimed Iranian painter of the European academic style during the late Qajar and…

BEHZĀD, ḤOSAYN (1273/1894-1347 Š./1968), lacquer artist, painter, and book illustrator. Born in Tehran, he was the son of Mīrzā Fażl-Allāh…