Table of Contents

• CABBAGE

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  (Pers. kalam).Many medicinal properties and uses have been attributed in the Islamic period to the leaves and seeds of the karanb, most of which can be traced to the writings of the Greek masters Dioscorides, Galen, and others.

• ČĀČ

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (Ar. Šāš), the name of a district and of a town in medieval Transoxania; the name of the town was gradually supplanted by that of Tashkent from late Saljuq and Mongol times onwards.

• ČAČ-NĀMA

  D. N. MacLean

  Persian translation of an early anonymous Arabic history of Sind compiled at Arōr in the 3rd/9th century.

• CADMAN, JOHN

  Kamran Eqbal

  Director and later chairman of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) during the reign of Reżā Shah (b. Silverdale, Staffordshire, England, 7 September 1877, d. Bletchley, Buckingham, 31 May 1941).

• ČĀDOR (1)

  Cross-Reference

  A portable dwelling characteristic of certain nomad groups. It consists of a canopy of cloth or skin supported by upright posts and anchored to the ground by means of pegs and ropes. See TENTS.

• ČĀDOR (2)

  Bijan Gheiby, James R. Russell, Hamid Algar

  A loose female garment covering the body, sometimes also the face.

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• CADUSII

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  an Iranian tribe settled between the Caspian and the Black sea.

• ČAGĀD Ī DĀITĪ

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  (or Dāityā), lit. “summit of the law," a peak of the mythical mountain Harburz, located in Ērānwēǰ in the middle of the world.

• ČAḠADĀY

  Cross-reference

  second son of Čengīz Khan. See CHAGHATAYID DYNASTY.

• ČAḠĀNA

  Ḥosayn ʿAlī Mallāḥ

  the name given to four types of musical instruments. This spelling is found in most dictionaries. Sachs’ Real-Lexikon has čaqāna, and other forms are also found: čaḡān, čaḡana, and čaḡba; in Arabic jaḡāna or jafāna.

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• ČAḠANĪ, ṬĀHER

  Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī

  b. Abi’l-ʿAbbās Fażl b. Abī Bakr Moḥammad b. Abī Saʿd Moẓaffar b. Moḥtāj, prince and poet of the ancient Iranian Āl-e Moḥtāj, ruler of Čaḡānīān (Čaḡān Ḵodāt).

• ČAḠĀNĪĀN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ.

• ČAḠĀNĪĀN, Chaghanids

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀL-E MOḤTĀJ.

• ČAḠĀNRŪD

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya.

• ČAḠATĀY

  Cross-Reference

  See CHAGHATAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE and CHAGHATAYID DYNASTY.

• ČAḠČARĀN

  Daniel Balland

  Principal town and administrative capital of the province of Ḡōr, in the mountains of central Afghanistan.

• ČAḠRĪ BEG DĀWŪD

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  b. Mīḵāʾīl b. Saljūq, Abū Solaymān, a member of the Saljuqs, the leading family of the Oghuz Turks, who with his brother Ṭoḡrel (Ṭoḡrïl) Beg founded the Great Saljuq dynasty in Persia in the 5th/11th century.

• ČAḠRĪ KHAN ʿALĪ

  Cross-reference

  See ILAK-KHANIDS.

• ČĀH

  Marcel Bazin

  “well”; together with qanāt (subterranean water canals), wells play a great part in the mobilization of the groundwater resources of Persia.

• ČĀH-BAHĀR

  Eckart Ehlers

  Name of a town and bay on the Makrān coast of Persian Baluchistan facing the coast of Oman.

• ČAHĀR AYMĀQ

  Cross-Reference

  See AYMĀQ.

• ČAHĀR BĀḠ

  Cross-Reference

  See ČAHĀRBĀḠ.

• ČAHĀR DOWLĪ

  Pierre Oberling

  (Davālī), or ČĀR DOWLĪ, a tribe of western Iran.

• ČAHĀR LANG

  cross-reference

  (ČĀR LANG). See BAḴTĪĀRĪ TRIBE i.

• ČAHĀR MAḤĀ(L) WA BAḴTĪĀRĪ

  Eckart Ehlers and Hūšang Kešāvarz

  second smallest province (ostān) of Persia in area, located in the Zagros mountains of southwestern Persia.

• ČAHĀR MAQĀLA

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  persian prose work written in the 6th/12th century by Abu’l-Ḥasan Neẓām-al-­Dīn (or Najm-al-Dīn) Aḥmad b. ʿOmar b. ʿAlī Neẓāmī ʿArūżī Samarqandī, originally entitled Majmaʿ al-nawāder.

• ČAHĀR ONṢOR

  Sharif Husain Qasemi

  (Four elements), an autobiographical work in prose by the poet and Sufi Abu’l-Maʿānī Mīrzā ʿAbd-al-Qāder Bīdel.

• ČAHĀR-BAYTI

  Cross-Reference

  See DO-BAYTI.

• ČAHĀRBĀḠ

  David Stronach

  lit. “four gardens,” a rectangular garden divided by paths or waterways into four symmetrical sections.

• ČAHĀRBĀḠ-E EṢFAHĀN

  Roger M. Savory

  the name of a broad avenue which was a key feature of the city of Isfahan as replanned by Shah ʿAbbās I after he had designated the city the new capital of the Safavid state in 1006/1597-98.

• ČAHĀRBĀḠ-E GARRŪS

  Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī

  (ČĀRBĀḠ-E GARRŪS), a park no longer in existence in the south of the town of Bījār, center of Garrūs šahrestān in Persian Kurdistan.

• ČAHĀRBĀḠ-E MAŠHAD

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  name of a royal garden and palace at Mašhad; under the Qajars and up to the present time it has been the name of an old quarter in the city.

• ČAHĀRDAH MAʿṢŪM

  Hamid Algar

  the fourteen inerrant or immaculate personages venerated by Twelver Shiʿites, i.e., the Prophet Moḥammad, his daughter Fāṭema, and the twelve imams.

• ČAHĀRGĀH

  Bruno Nettl

  the name of one of the twelve dastgāhs (modes) of traditional Persian music in the 14th/20th century.

• ČAHĀRJŪY

  Cross-reference

  See ĀMOL.

• ČAHĀRMEŻRĀB

  Jean During

  a genre of traditional rhythmic instrumental music.

• ČAHĀRŠANBA-SŪRĪ

  Manouchehr Kasheff and ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

  (usually pronounced Čāršamba-sūrī), the last Wednesday of the Persian solar year, the eve of which is marked by special customs and rituals, most notably jumping over fire.

• ČAHĀRṬĀQ

  Dietrich Huff, Bernard O’Kane

  literally “four arches,” a modern term for an equilateral architectural unit consisting of four arches or short barrel vaults between four corner piers, with a dome on squinches over the central square. this unit became the most prominent element in traditional Iranian architecture after the ayvān.

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• ČAHĀRTĀR

  Jean During

  (lit. four-strings), a musical instrument belonging to the family of long-necked lutes.

• ČAHRĪQ

  Amir Hassanpour, Juan R. I. Cole

  a dehestān, village, and fortress in Salmās (Šāhpūr in the Pahlavi period) šahrestān in Azerbaijan between Ḵᵛoy and Urmia.

• ČAIŠPIŠ

  Cross-Reference

  See ČIŠPIŠ.

• CAITYAPRADAKṢIṆĀGĀTHĀ

  Ronald E. Emmerick

  lit. “the song (Skt. gāthā) about circumambulating (Skt. pradakṣiṇā) a holy place (Skt. caitya),” the title of a Buddhist text, a Khotanese version of which is extant.

• ČAK

  Willem Floor

  legal document, testament, money draft, check.

• ČAḴĀNSŪR

  Daniel Balland

  principal town of the large Ḵāšrūd delta oasis in northeastern Sīstān.

• ČĀKAR

  Etienne de la Vaissiere

  personal soldier-retainer of the nobility in pre-Islamic Central Asia.

• ČAKAR

  Mansour Shaki

  a Middle Persian legal term denoting a widow who at the death of her “authorized” (pādixšāyīhā) husband without issue was obliged to enter into a levirate marriage (čakarīh) in order to provide him with male offspring (frazand).

• ČAKĀVAK

  Hūšang Aʿlam, Hūšang Aʿlam

  (Mid. Pers. čakōk). i. The lark. ii. A melody in Persian music.

• ČAKZĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ACƎKZĪ.

• ČĀL

  Ehsan Yarshater

  Like most Persian villages, Čāl had several quarters (maḥallas), but the major division was between Upper and Lower Čāl (locally Gali-kiá and Jarina-ma:la, respectively), with some local variation between the dialects, for instance, Upper Čāli berbinden “to cut,” veškenja “sparrow,” nāngun “pinch” versus Lower Čāli bervinden, meškenja, and nāngur.

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• ČĀL TARḴĀN

  Jens Kröger

  (Čāl Tarḵān-ʿEšqābād), a site about 20 km southeast of Ray with remains from the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods.

• ČALABĪ, ʿĀREF

  Cross-Reference

  See ČELEBĪ, ʿĀREF.

• ČALABĪĀNLŪ

  Pierre Oberling

  a Turkicized tribe dwelling, for the most part, in the dehestān of Garmādūz in Aras­bārān region of northern Azerbaijan.

• ČĀLDERĀN

  Michael J. McCaffrey

  battle of, an engagement fought near Ḵᵛoy in northwestern Azerbaijan on 23 August 1514, resulting in a decisive victory for the Ottoman forces under Sultan Salīm I over the Safavids led by Shah Esmāʿīl I. No single event prompted Salīm’s decision to wage war. It was the direct and inevitable result of the establishment of the Safavid state.

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• CALENDARS

  Antonio Panaino, Reza Abdollahy, Daniel Balland

  i. Pre-Islamic calendars. ii. In the Islamic period. iii. Afghan calendars. iv. Other modern calendars. Although evidence of calendrical traditions in Iran can be traced back to the 2nd millennium B.C., before the lifetime of Zoroaster, the earliest calendar that is fully preserved dates from the Achaemenid period. 

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• ČĀLI

  Cross-Reference

  See ČĀL.

• CALIPHS AND THE CALIPHATE

  Hamid Algar

  as viewed by the Shiʿites of Persia.

• CALLIAS, PEACE OF

  Ernst Badian

  peace made by Xerxes and/or Artaxerxes I with Athens and her confederacy in the 5th century B.C.

• CALLIGRAPHY

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  (ḵaṭṭāṭī, ḵᵛošnevīsī), the writing system in use in Persia since early Islamic times, which grew out of the Arabic alphabet. Comparison of some of the scripts that developed on Persian ground, particularly Persian-style Kufic, with the Pahlavi and Avestan scripts reveals a number of similarities between them.

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• CALLIGRAPHY (continued)

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  In the handwriting of the various Muslim peoples, three distinct styles are recognizable: Turco-Arab, Persian, and Indo-Afghan. In the style once current in Turkey and the similar styles now prevalent in the Arab countries, most scripts are written with sharp outlines and a downward slope.

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• CALLISTHENES

  Marie Louise Chaumont

  the name of a 4th-century BCE Greek historian of the period of Alexander the Great. On Aristotle’s recom­mendation Alexander engaged Callisthenes to write the history of his planned expedition against Persia. The existing History of Alexander is now commonly referred to as “Pseudo Callisthenes” or the Alexander Romance.

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• CALMEYER, Peter

  W. Kleiss and A. Shapur Shahbazi

  German archaeologist and Iranologist (b. 5 September 1930 in Halle, d. 22 November 1995 in Berlin).

• ČĀLŪS

  Bernard Hourcade

  a small town in western Māzandarān (šahrestān of Nowšahr, baḵš of Čālūs) located about 8 km from the Caspian coast at an elevation of 7 m.

• CAMA ORIENTAL INSTITUTE

  M. F. Kanga, Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa

  (K. R. Cama Oriental Institute), a research institute in Bombay established in memory of the Parsi orientalist, teacher, and social reformer Kharshedji Rustomji Cama, inaugurated 18 December 1916.

• CAMA, KHARSHEDJI RUSTAMH

  James R. Russell

  (1831-1909), Parsi Zoroastrian scholar and community leader. Cama worked for the organization of Parsi madres­sas (madrasas), and his consultation was sought also in the establishment of Hindu and Muslim schools. He was associated with the University of Bombay.

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• CAMBADENE

  A. Shapur Shahbazi

  the name of a region (dahyāuš) in ancient Media and present Persian Kurdistan.

• CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF IRAN

  Hubert S. G. Darke

  a survey of the history and historical geography of the land which is present-day Iran, as well as other territories inhabited by peoples of Iranian descent, from prehistoric times up to the present in seven volumes (vol. III being a double volume), published 1968 to 1989.

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• CAMBYSENE

  Marie Louise Chaumont

  Whether or not Cambysene was part of the Achaemenid Empire is unknown. When the Artaxid dynasty of Armenia was at the peak of its power this region was one of its provinces or districts; it remained so until it was conquered by the Albanians, probably after the defeat of Tigranes the Great in 69 b.c.

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• CAMBYSES

  Muhammad A. Dandamayev

  (OPers. Kambūǰiya-, Elamite Kanbuziya, Akkadian Kambuziya, Aram. Knbwzy), the name of two kings of the Achaemenid dynasty.

• ČAMČAMĀL

  Abdollah Mardukh

  (Kurdish čam “river” and Čamāl/Jamāl, personal name; in the sources also writ­ten Jamjamāl), a fertile dehestān of Ṣaḥna baḵš in Kermānšāhān (Bāḵtarān) province located to the south and west of Ṣaḥna on the Kermānšāh-Hamadān road and watered by Gāmāsb and Dīnavar rivers.

• CAMEL

  Richard W. Bulliet, Moḥammad-Nāṣer Ḡolāmreżaʾī, Eqbāl Yaḡmāʾī, Mahmoud Omidsalar

  (šotor). Artifacts from ancient Iran indicate that only the Bactrian camel was part of the native fauna of greater Iran, though it was probably not numerous. Possibly the earliest evidence is a painted image on a ceramic shard from Tepe Sialk, probably datable between 3000 and 2500 B.C.

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• CAMEL THORN

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  (Alhagi Adans. spp.), common name for wild thorny suffrutescent plants of the Papilionaceae family, called šotor-ḵār and ḵār-e šotor (lit. “camel’s thorn”) in Persian.

• CAMERON, GEORGE GLENN

  Gernot L. Windfuhr

  philologist and his­torian, b. 30 July 1905 in Washington, Pennsylvania, d. 14 September 1979 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

• CAMPBELL, JOHN

  Kamran Ekbal

  (1799-1870), British envoy to Persia, 1830-35.

• CAMPBELL, JOHN NICHOLL ROBERT ii. The Archives

  Roya Arab

  (1799-1870), British envoy to Iran from 1831 to 1835. The archives left behind by Campbell provide scholars with a comprehensive first-hand account of British and foreign involvement in Iran and Central Asia in the 1800s.

• CAMPHOR

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  a strong-smelling volatile white solid essential oil obtained from two genera of the camphor tree and used from ancient times in Persia as an aromatic with antiseptic and insect-repelling properties.

• ČAMRŪŠ

  Alan V. Williams

  a mythical bird that in the Pahlavi books, of all birds of land and sky, is second only to the Sēn bird in worth.

• CANADA i. Iranian Studies in

  Colin Paul Mitchell

  several factors in the last half-century have led to a rapid expansion of Iranian studies in Canada in the fields of history, literature, language, philosophy, religion, art history, and archaeology.

• CANADA v. Iranian Community in Canada

  M. Mannani, N. Rahimieh, K. Sheibani

  Canada remains among the most popular destinations for Iranians seeking to emigrate, and Iranian immigrants to Canada are the fifth most numerous of any nationality.

• ČANDARBHĀN BARAHMAN

  Cross-Reference

  See ČANDRA BHĀN BARAHMAN.

• CANDLE

  Mahmoud Omidsalar, J. T. P. de Bruijn

  (Pers.-Ar. šamʿ); the Arabic word literally means “beeswax."

• CANDLESTICKS

  Linda Komaroff

  from the late 6th/12th through the early 10th/16th century one of the most common types of implement produced as a luxury metalware in Iran. Their form, decoration, and epigraphic program reflect contemporary trends in Iranian metalwork.

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• ČANDRA BHĀN

  Sharif Husain Qāsemī

  (or Čandarbhān Barahman), Indian poet and writer in Persian (b. Lahore, date unknown, d. Lahore 1073/1662-63).

• ČANDŪ LAʿL ŠĀDĀN

  Sharif Husain Qasemi

  Maharaja, states­man and poet in Persian and Urdu (b. 1175/1761-62, d. 7 Rabīʿ II 1261/15 April 1845 at Hyderabad).

• CANDYS

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  name probably of Iranian origin used by Greek authors for a Persian garment.

• ČANG

  Ḥosayn-ʿAlī Mallāḥ

  In Persian literature, particularly in poetry, the harp kept an important place. In the Pahlavi text on King Ḵosrow and his page the čang player is listed among the finest of musicians. The harp was also one of the instruments played by the inmates of the harem.

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• ČANGRANGHĀČA-NĀMA

  Žāla Āmūzgār

  a narrative work in Persian verse by Zartošt or Zarātošt, son of Bahrām-e Paždū, a poet of the 7th/13th century.

• CANNIZZARO, FRANCESCO ADOLFO

  Antonio Panaino

  (b. Messina, 13 July 1867; d. Rome, 24 April 1914), Italian autodidact of Oriental languages and translator of the Vidēvdād.

• ČĀP

  Willem Floor

  “print, printing,” a Persian word probably derived from Hindi chāpnā, “to print.”

• ČĀPĀR

  Willem Floor

  (or čapar < Turk. čapmak “to gallop”), post rider.

• CAPITAL CITIES

  A. Shapur Shahbazi, C. Edmund Bosworth

  these centers played important diplomatic and administrative roles in Iranian history, closely linked to the fortunes of the ruling families.

• CAPITALS

  Wolfram Kleiss

  in architectural terminology, tran­sitional elements between weight-bearing supports (see COLUMNS) and the roofs or vaults supported. The development of the capital began in Assyria, when a tree trunk was inserted in the earth with another trunk or branch laid in the fork to carry the roof construction.

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• CAPPADOCIA

  Michael Weiskopf

  Anatolian Achaemenid satrapy, Hellenistic-era Iranian kingdom, and imperial Roman province. A rolling plateau cut by mountains, Cappadocia in the east contains bare central highlands, in the west a nearly treeless land­scape, and in the north mountainous tracts marked by fertile valleys, especially on the lower Halys river.

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• CAPUCHINS IN PERSIA

  Francis Richard

  From 1626 onward the French Capuchins established a number of missionary posts in the Near East. Capuchin monks lived solely on the alms that were given to them. The first Capuchins at Isfahan assiduously learned Persian and Turkish.

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• ČĀR BAKR

  G. A. Pugachenkova

  (lit. “four Bakrs”), family necropolis of the powerful Jūybāri shaikhs near the village of Sumitan.

• CARACAL

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  (Felis caracal Schreber = Lynx caracal, Caracal caracal), also called “desert lynx” or “Persian lynx”; in Persian, sīāhgūš, lit. “black-eared.”

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• CARACALLA

  Erich Kettenhofen

  the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla because of his hooded robe (b. 188, d. 217), who conducted a campaign against the Parthians.

• CARAKA

  Ronald E. Emmerick

  the name of an Indian physician associated with one of the major works on Indian medicine (the Carakasaṃhitā), as well as the name of King Kaniṣka’s physician.

• ČARAND PARAND

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  (Čarand o parand), literally “fiddle-faddle,” the title of satirical pieces of social and political criticism in the form of short narratives, brief announcements, telegrams, news reports, etc., by ʿAlī-Akbar Dehḵodā.

• CARAVAN

  Bert G. Fragner

  a form of collective transport of men and goods.

• CARAVANSARY

  Moḥammad-Yūsuf Kīānī and Wolfram Kleiss

  a building that served as the inn of the Orient, providing accommodation for commercial, pilgrim, postal, and especially official travelers. The term kārvān-sarā was commonly used in Iran and is preserved in several place names. The normal caravansary consisted of a square or rectangular plan centered around a courtyard.

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