Table of Contents
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COURTS AND COURTIERS iv. Under the Mongols
Peter Jackson
During the early stages of the Mongol presence Persia was ruled, on behalf of the great khan (qaḡan, qaʾan/qāʾān) in Mongolia, by military governors based in Azerbaijan and in Khorasan, but, with the coming of Hülegü (Hūlāgū) in 654/1256 and the establishment of the Il-khanid state, the country was once again the seat of a resident sovereign.
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COURTS AND COURTIERS v. Under the Timurid and Turkman dynasties
Monika Gronke
Timurid and Turkman rulers and princes established outside of Samarquand and built them into important political and especially religious and cultural centers.
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COURTS AND COURTIERS vi. In the Safavid period
Roger M. Savory
The organization of the court and its administration.
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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.
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COURTS AND COURTIERS viii. In the reign of Reżā Shah Pahlavī
A. Reza Sheikholeslami
When Reżā Shah (r. 1304-20 Š./1925-1941) acceded to the throne he retained a number of lower officials from the royal court of the Qajars, specifically those who had not been vocal in support of republicanism.
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COURTS AND COURTIERS x. Court poetry
J. T. P. de Bruijn
Until modern times there were strong incentives to patronize poets and other writers wherever the seat of power was renowned as a center of culture.
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COURTS OF LAW
Cross-Reference
See JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SYSTEMS v. Judicial System in the 20th Century.
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ČOVĀRĪ
Cross-Reference
See LORESTĀN.
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COW
Cross-Reference
See CATTLE.
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COWELL, EDWARD BYLES
Parvin Loloi
(1826-1903), polymath, scholar, and translator from Indian languages and Persian.
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ČOWGĀN
Cross-Reference
See POLO.
Article Pending.
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COX, PERCY ZACHARIAH
Floreeda Safiri
(1864-1937), Sir, officer of the political service in the British Indian government who held several diplomatic posts in the Persian Gulf region in 1893-1923 and played a leading role in negotiating the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919.
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COYAJEE, JEHANGIR COOVERJI
Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa
(1875-1943), Sir, Parsi economist and student of ancient Iranian mythology.
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CRAFTS
compiled from personal observations and reports by Carole Bier, Mehdī Ebrāhīmīān, Iran Ala Firouz, and Jay Gluck.
Although crafts have always played a predominant role in the artistic history of Persia, in this century new market forces and social currents have interacted with deeply rooted traditions to produce new types of objects, as well as variations on more familiar ones.
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CRANE
Hūšang Aʿlam
(kolang), any of the large migratory wading birds of the family Gruidae. The kolang is mentioned in the Bundahišn as one of 110 species of birds. In classical Persian poetry the crane’s ability to fly high and far; its order, discipline, and characteristic whooping sounds in flight are mentioned.
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CRASSUS
Cross-Reference
See CARRHAE.
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CREATION
Cross-Reference
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CREMATION
Cross-Reference
See BURIAL.
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CRIMEAN TATAR
Dan D.Y. Shapira
(Krim-Tatar, Qırım-Tatar), name for various Turkic peoples who moved to the Crimean peninsula in the past and are now in other areas as well.
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CRIMINAL LAW
Cross-Reference
See JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SYSTEMS v. Judicial System in the 20th Century.
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CRIMINOLOGY
Parviz Saney
the study of the causation, prevention, and correction of crime.
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CROCODILE
S. C. Anderson
(nahang, Baluchi gandū), Crocodylus palustris, the marsh crocodile. It inhabits fresh-water marshes, pools, and rivers, and probably the only suitable crocodile habitat in Persian Baluchistan is along the Sarbāz river. The present intermittent distribution of this species in Pakistan and Persian Baluchistan represents a fragmentation of a once more continuous range during moister climatic regimes in the recent past.
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CROCUS
Hūšang Aʿlam
generic name of a large number of hardy bulbous flowering plants of the family Iridaceae.
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CROESUS
A. Shapur Shahbazi
last king of Lydia (r. ca. 560-546 B.C.E.) who pioneered the coining of gold and silver money, was defeated and captured by Cyrus in the plain beside Sardis.
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CROSBY, OSCAR TERRY
Ronald E. Emmerick
(born Ponchatoula, Louisiana, 21 April 1861, d. Warrenton, Virginia, 2 January 1947), collector of an important group of Khotanese texts.
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CROW
Hūšang Aʿlam
a bird of the family Corvidae, represented in Persia and Afghanistan by six genera. Several of their features are more or less reflected in Persian literature and folklore. In poetry the blackness of the feathers (par[r]-e zāḡ) has often been used in similes to emphasize the blackness or darkness of a lock of hair, a certain night, clouds, and the like.
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CROWN
Multiple Authors
(Pers. and Ar. tāj), royal and divine headdress.
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CROWN i. In the Median and Achaemenid periods
Peter Calmeyer
In the Achaemenid period rulers were represented wearing two different kinds of crown. Most common was a rigid cylinder with crenellated decoration, which had a long tradition in Persia; crenellations appeared on the Elamite rock relief at Kūrāngūn in Fārs and were revived again for the crown of the Pahlavi dynasty.
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CROWN ii. From the Seleucids to the Islamic conquest
Elsie H. Peck
It was under the Sasanian monarchs that the crown, quintessential symbol of royal power, received its most elaborate and varied forms. From the earliest representations it is clear that new shapes were not adopted immediately; rather, the royal headgear of the conquered enemy was at first continued.
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CROWN iii. On monuments from the Islamic conquest to the Mongol invasion
Elsie H. Peck
One of the most durable types of royal headgear was the winged crown, first observed on coins and reliefs of the Sasanian Bahrām II.
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CROWN iv. Of Persian rulers from the Arab conquerors
A. Shapur Shahbazi
Despite abhorrence of imperial titles and regalia in early Islamic traditions, Omayyad and ʿAbbasid governors, and the rulers of Ṭabarestān, continued to employ on their coins the iconography of the coins of the Sasanian rulers Ḵosrow II and Yazdegerd III.
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CROWN LANDS
Cross-Reference
See ḴĀṢṢA.
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CROWN v. In the Qajar and Pahlavi periods
Yaḥyā Ḏokāʾ
Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (r. 1797-1834) ordered the creation of a tall, jeweled crown with eight peaks on a red velvet cap, the Kayānī crown. From that time on all Qajar kings wore this crown, which is now kept in the Bānk-e markazī-e Īrān (Central bank of Iran).
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CROWN JEWELS of Persia
Patricia Jellicoe
the assemblage of jewels collected by the kings of Persia, kept now in the Bānk-e markazī-e Īrān (Central bank of Iran) in Tehran.
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CROWN PRINCE
A. Shapur Shahbazi
the officially recognized heir apparent to the throne.
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CROYANCES ET COUTUMES PERSANES
Mahmoud Omidsalar
by the French orientalist Henri Massé (b. Lunéville, France, 2 March 1886, d. Paris, 9 November 1969), published in 1938, one of the most comprehensive and reliable texts on general Persian folklore in a Western language.
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CRUSADES
Peter Jackson
in relation to Persia; the term “crusade” refers to a series of Christian holy wars fought in the Middle Ages against the Muslims in Syria and Palestine and subsequently elsewhere in the Near East and, by extension, to wars against other enemies, both within and outside Christendom, that were put on the same spiritual footing by the popes.
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CRYSTAL
Layla S. Diba
originally a type of fine glass developed in England in the 17th century and owing its special clarity and brilliance to the high refractive index of lead oxide in the metal; the term is often applied to fine glass in general.
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CRYSTAL, ROCK
Brigitte Musche, Jens Kröger
a pure, transparent variety of quartz, usually called “rock crystal” to distinguish it from crystal glass.
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CTESIAS
Rüdiger Schmitt
(Gk. Ktēsías), Greek physician at the Achaemenid court and author of Persiká (b. perhaps ca. 441 BCE).
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CTESIPHON
Jens Kröger
(Ṭīsfūn), ancient city on the Tigris adjacent to the Hellenistic city of Seleucia, ca. 35 km south of the later site of Baghdad.
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ČŪB BĀZĪ
Robyn C. Friend
a category of folk dance found all over Persia (Hamada) and distinguished from other types of folk dance by the fact that the dancers carry sticks, which they strike together.
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ČŪB ḴAṬṬ
Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yusofi
a stick 20-30 cm long formerly used by neighborhood shopkeepers, especially butchers and bakers, to keep accounts.
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Čub-bāzi
music sample
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CUCUMBER
Hūšang Aʿlam
Cucumis sativus L. (of the family Cucurbitaceae), in Persia generally called ḵīār (with occasional slight variants), a term that is also employed to designate the fruit of certain other plants.
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CUCURBITAE
Cross-Reference
See CUCUMBER.
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CULTURE
Cross-Reference
See FARHANG.
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CUMIN
Hūšang Aʿlam
an umbelliferous plant of the Old World and its aromatic seeds.
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CUMONT, FRANZ VALÉRY MARIE
Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin
classical philologist and historian of religions, whose research resulted in a substantial contribution to the understanding of Mithraism and other oriental religions in the Roman empire.
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CUNAXA
A. Shapur Shahbazi
the Greek form of the name of a village located some 50 miles north of Babylon, where a decisive battle was fought on 3 September 401 B.C.E. between Cyrus the Younger and his brother Artaxerxes II.
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CUNEIFORM SCRIPT
Rüdiger Schmitt
the conventional name for a system of writing ultimately derived from the pictographic script developed by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia (Uruk) around 3000 B.C.E. Cuneiform was written with a reed stylus, which left wedge-shaped impressions on soft clay tablets.
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ČŪPA
Cross-Reference
See DANCE.
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ČŪPĀN
Jean-Pierre Digard
or čōbān “shepherd” (Mid. Pers. and NPers. šobān); even today the shepherd remains a central figure, in both the technological life and consequently the symbolic life, of all systems of animal husbandry.
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ČUPĀNĪĀN
Cross-Reference
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CUPBEARER
James R. Russel
one who fills and distributes cups of wine, as in a royal household.
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CUPPING
Cross-Reference
See BLOODLETTING.
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CURTIUS RUFUS, QUINTUS
Philip Huyse
(probably fl. 1st century CE), author of the only extant Latin monograph on Alexander the Great, usually called Historiae Alexandri Magni, in many respects the most complete and liveliest account of Alexander’s exploits in Asia.
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CURZON, GEORGE NATHANIEL
Denis Wright
(1859-1925), 1st Marquess of Kedleston, British statesman, traveler, and writer.
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CUSTOMS DUTIES
Willem Floor
a tax levied on the movement of trade. A new law ensuring Persian autonomy in establishing tariffs (ḥoqūq-e gomrokī) was enacted on 1 May 1928; it provided for an ad valorem tariff on most goods, with special rates for certain luxuries like gold, silver, and tobacco.
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CUT PAPER
Barbara Schmitz
(qeṭʿa “decoupage,” also monabbat-kārī “filigree work”), a type of applied ornament documented in Persian manuscripts and sometimes on bookbindings from the approximate period 895-1060/1490-1650.
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CYAXARES
I. M. Diakonoff
(Gk. Kyaxárēs) king of Media in the 6th century B.C.E.
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CYLINDER SEALS
Edith Porada
CYLINDER SEALS. The seals of ancient Persia correspond in their types and use to those of Mesopotamia, beginning with amuletic pendants, which could also be used as seals, and developing into elaborately engraved seal stones, with a change in the Uruk period from stamp to cylinder seals.
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CYPRESS
Hūšang Aʿlam
(sarv), Cupressus (Tourn.) L. The genus Cupressus is represented in Persia by one species (sempervirens L.), with three varieties: the cereiform (cereiformis Rehd.), called sarv-e nāz in Shiraz; the more common pyramidal or fastigiate, variously called sarv-e šīrāzī (Shiraz cypress) and sarv-e kāšī (Kāšān cypress); and the horizontal, known popularly by several names but usually referred to as zarbīn by modern Persian botanists.
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CYPRUS
Michael Weiskopf
The historical tradition, preserved for the most part by Diodorys Siculus, was much influenced by Isocrates’ erroneous perception of the Achaemenid empire as in a state of decline, seething with discontent and secret disloyalty to the great king.
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CYPRUS in the Achaemenid Period
Antigone Zournatzi
in the Achaemenid period. The kings of the southeastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus reportedly submitted willingly to Cyrus II and offered military assistance to the Persians in their campaigns against Caria and Babylon (539 BCE).
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CYRIACUS AND JULITTA, ACTS OF
Nicholas Sims-Williams
Christian martyrological text.
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CYROPAEDIA
Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg
(Gr. Kúrou paideía, The education of Cyrus), a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great (559-29 b.c.e.), founder of the Achaemenid empire.
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CYROPOLIS
Igor V. P’yankov
(Latin form of Gr. Kuroúpolis), ancient town in Central Asia probably founded by Cyrus the Great (559-30 B.C.E.).
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CYRTIANS
Rüdiger Schmitt
a tribe dwelling mainly in the mountains of Atropatenian Media together with the Cadusii, Amardi (or “Mardi”), Tapyri, and others.
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CYRUS
Multiple Authors
a Persian name, most notably of the founder of the Achaemenid empire, Cyrus the Great.
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CYRUS i. The Name
Rüdiger Schmitt
Cyrus is a Persian name, most notably of the founder of the Achaemenid empire, Cyrus the Great and of the second son of Darius II.
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CYRUS ii. Cyrus I
A. Shapur Shahbazi
The evidence on the early Achaemenid king Cyrus I is as follows. Herodotus attested that Cyrus the Great was the son of Cambyses and grandson of Cyrus.
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CYRUS iii. Cyrus II The Great
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
Cyrus II the Great (also known to the Greeks as Cyrus the Elder; b. ca. 600 B.C.E., d. 530 B.C.E.) was the founder of the Achaemenid empire.
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CYRUS iiia. Cyrus II as Portrayed by Xenophon and Herodotus
Robert Faulkner
Xenophon, in his work The Education of Cyrus, makes Cyrus’s imperial founding the theme of a biography; for Herodotus, that founding dominates only Book 1 of nine parts apparently devoted to the Persian-Greek wars decades later.
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CYRUS iv. The Cyrus cylinder
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
The Cyrus cylinder is a fragmentary clay cylinder with an Akkadian inscription of thirty-five lines discovered in a foundation deposit by A. H. Rassam during his excavations at the site of the Marduk temple in Babylon in 1879.
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CYRUS v. The Tomb of Cyrus
Antigoni Zournatzi
The tomb of Cyrus is generally identified with a small stone monument approximately 1 km southwest of the palaces of Pasargadae, in the center of the Morḡāb plain. According to Greek sources, the tomb of Cyrus II 559-29 B.C.E.) was located in the royal park at Pasargadae.
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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).
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CYRUS RIVER (1)
Cross-reference
River in Fārs. See KOR.
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CYRUS RIVER (2)
Cross-reference
River in Central Asia. See KURA.
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Čahār pāra
music sample
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Čahārmezrāb-e Homāyun
music sample
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Čahāršamba-suri
music sample
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Čakāvak
music sample
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Chahārgāh
music sample
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Čol Iroq
music sample
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C~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cross-Reference
list of all the figure and plate images in the letter C entries