Table of Contents

  • MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Āmu Daryā.

  • MAʿĀYEB AL-REJĀL

    Afsaneh Najmabadi

    a treatise written in 1894 by Bibi Ḵānom Estarābādi/Astarābādi as a counterargument to the anonymous Taʾdib al-neswān/Taʾdib al-nesāʾ, a tract on how to discipline women, published in the mid-19th century.

  • MACHALSKI, FRANCISZEK

    Anna Krasnowolska

    (1904-1979), Polish Iranist. Some of his best papers are devoted to cultural and political life in Pahlavi Persia.

  • MACKENZIE, DAVID NEIL

    Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst

    Believing that the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies would be the institution most suited to his interests, Mackenzie enrolled there in September 1948. Because Pashto was not offered, he chose Persian, and completed the three-year B.A. course in 1951.

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  • MADĀʾEN

    Michael Morony

    the Sasanian metropolitan area of several contiguous cities, on both sides of the Tigris and connected by floating bridges, about 35 km southeast of Abbasid Baghdad.

  • MADĀR AL-AFĀŻEL

    Solomon Bayevsky

    dictionary of the Persian language compiled in 1001/1593 by the poet and historian Allāh-dād Fayżī b. Asad al-ʿOlamāʾ ʿAli-šir Serhendi.

  • MĀDAR-E SOLAYMĀN

    Cross-Reference

    "Solaymān's mother," local name of the tomb of Cyrus. See CYRUS v. The Tomb of Cyrus

  • MĀDAYĀN Ī HAZĀR DĀDESTĀN

    Maria Macuch

    (Book of a Thousand Judgements), Pahlavi Law-Book from the late Sasanian period (first half of the seventh century).

  • MĀDDA TĀRIḴ

    Paul Losensky

    chronogram poem, a poetic genre characterized by the inclusion of the year in which an event occurred.

  • MADRASA

    Cross-Reference

    school for the study of the Islamic sciences and related subjects.  For the institution, see under entry EDUCATION: iv. The Medieval Madrasa, v. The Madrasa In ShiʿIte Persia; vi. The Madrasa In Sunni Kurdistan. Other entries contain passing references to madrasas in relation to specific mosques; see, e.g., GOWHAR-ŠĀD MOSQUE, BĪBĪ KHANOM MOSQUE.   For the architecture of madrasas, see ISFAHAN x. Monuments x(4). Madrasa.

  • MAFĀTIḤ AL-ʿOLUM

    George Saliba

    (Keys to sciences) by  Ḵᵛārazmi, a book in which key terms used by various classes of scholars, artisans, state officials, and others are explained (comp. ca. 366/976).

  • MAGI

    Muhammad A. Dandamayev

    the only recorded designation of priests of all western Iranians during the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian (mgw), and Sasanian periods.

  • MAGIC i. MAGICAL ELEMENTS IN THE AVESTA AND NĒRANG LITERATURE

    Antonio Panaino

    The presence of magical elements in the strict sense  in Avestan literature has been considered rare.

  • MAGIC ii. IN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD

    Mahmud Omidsalar

    Magic can be briefly described as the art of influencing the course of events by the occult control of natural phenomena through the application of ritual observances acquired through a study of esoteric and often closely guarded corpus of knowledge and traditions.

  • MAGOPHONIA

    Muhammad A. Dandamayev

    An appropriate Iranian word for magophonia is the Sogdian mwγzt- (killing of the Magi).

  • MĀH YAŠT

    William W. Malandra

    one of what have been termed ‘minor Yašts’  of the Avesta; it is dedicated to the moon.

  • MAḤALLĀTI, Moḥammad

    Javad Golmohammadi

    a master calligrapher of the Timurid period, known only through three surviving works on wood and stone (a cenotaph, a door, and a stone plaque), which reflect the stylistic influence of the Timurid prince and master calligrapher Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Bāysonqor (d. 1493).

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  • MĀHĀNI, ABU ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD

    Bijan Vahabzadeh

    mathematician and astronomer from Māhān, near Kerman, Iran, who flourished in the second half of the 9th century; he was a learned arithmetician and geometer, generally recognized among his peers.

  • MAHĀRLU LAKE

    Karāmat-Allāh Afsar

    a picturesque, rather extensive body of water to the southeast of Shiraz.

  • MAḤĀSEN EṢFAHĀN

    David Durand-Guédy

    (The beauties of Isfahan), a book extolling Isfahan, written by Mofażżal b. Saʿd Māfarruḵi during the reign of the Saljuq sultan Malekšāh.