Table of Contents
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (2) In Pre-Islamic Iran
Gernot Windfuhr
Of the three known pre-Islamic languages (Urartian, Kassite, and Elamite), only Urartian and Elamite are fairly well known.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (3) Elamite
Gernot Windfuhr
Elamite was spoken in the southern Zagros regions, which correspond to the ancient cultural-political entities of Elam and Anshan, and expanded into Akkadian-speaking Susiana.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (4) Urartian
Gernot Windfuhr
Urartian was most likely the dominant vernacular around Lake Van and the upper Zab valley. It was written from the late ninth to seventh century BCE in the empire of Urartu.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (5) Kassite
Gernot Windfuhr
The Kassites, Akkadian Kaššu, were mountain tribes probably somewhere in the central Zagros who ruled Babylon from the sixteenth to the middle of the twelfth century BCE.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (6) in Islamic Iran
Gernot Windfuhr
The non-Iranian languages spoken today in Iran include members of the following language families: (1) Altaic, (2) Afro-Asiatic Semitic, (3) Indo-European, (4) Caucasian (5) Dravidian.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (7) Turkic Languages
Gernot Windfuhr
In Iran, there are two distinct branches of Turkic: Oghuz Turkic languages and dialects that represent the southwestern branch of Turkic, and Khalaj, which presents a tiny branch of its own.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (8) Semitic Languages
Gernot Windfuhr
First Aramaic and then Arabic had considerable contact with Iranian languages. Their impact differs.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (9) Arabic
Gernot Windfuhr
Most extensive was the Arab settlement in eastern Iran and Greater Khorasan (including northwestern Afghanistan, and Central Asia, including Marv and Bukhara).
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (10). Aramaic
Gernot Windfuhr
Speakers of North-Eastern Aramaic have been in contact with Iranian languages in the western regions of the plateau and on the western side of the Zagros for some 3,000 years.
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IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (1) Pre-Islamic
Philip Huyse
Iranian “literature” was for a long time essentially of oral nature as far as composition, performance, and transmission are concerned.
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IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (2) Classical
CHARLES-HENRI DE FOUCHÉCOUR
We will pay special attention to the early formation and origins of different literary genres in Persian works, even though the very notion of literary genres is somewhat arbitrary and a subject of continuing debate.
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IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (3) Modern
Cross-Reference
See FICTION.
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IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic (1.1) Overview
Philip G. Kreyenbroek
From the 2nd millennium BCE until Islam became dominant in Iran, a remarkable number of religious traditions existed there.
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IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic (1.2) Manicheism
Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst and Philip G. Kreyenbroek
Called after the founding prophet Mani (216-74 or 277), Manicheism was a syncretistic religion that, combining elements of the various religions current in Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau at the time, claimed to be the ultimate religion.
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IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (2) Islam in Iran (2.1) The Advent of Islam
Hamid Algar
Persian acquaintance with Islam began already in the time of the Prophet. Well known is the case of Salmān-e Fārsi, the Persian companion of the Prophet around whom many legends have been spun.
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IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (2) Islam in Iran (2.2) Mongol and Timurid Periods
Hamid Algar
It is sometimes assumed that the general predominance of Sunnism in Persia was significantly weakened by the destruction of the ʿAbbasid caliphate by the Mongols in 1258.
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IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (2) Islam in Iran (2.3) Shiʿism in Iran Since the Safavids
Hamid Algar
The Safavids originated as a hereditary lineage of Sufi shaikhs centered on Ardabil, Shafeʿite in school and probably Kurdish in origin. Their immediate following was concentrated in Azerbaijan.
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IRAN x. Persian art and architecture
Multiple Authors
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IRAN xi. MUSIC
Bruno Nettl
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IRAN AND THE CAUCASUS
Victoria Arakelova
the annual international academic journal of the Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies, Yerevan (CCIS), founded in 1997.