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ČĀDOR, a loose female garment covering the body, sometimes also the face (Figure 1). The etymology of the word is unknown; connection with Indian chattra “parasol” is uncertain (cf. ČATR). i. In Early Literary Sources ii. Among Zoroastrians iii. In Islamic Persia   i. In Early Literary Sources At least…

CADUSII (Lat.; Gk. Kadoúsioi), an Iranian tribe settled between the Caspian and the Black seas according to Stephan of Byzantium and on the south­western shore of the Caspian and south of the Araxes (Aras) between the Albani in the north and the Mardi in the east according to Strabo (11.6.1;…

ČAGĀD Ī DĀITĪ (or Dāityā), lit. “summit of the law” (cf. Av. dāitiia- “lawful”), a peak of the mythical mountain Harburz (Pers. Alborz, q.v.), located in Ērānwēǰ (q.v.) in the middle of the world (Bundahišn , TD2, pp. 77.13-14, 199.3f., tr. Anklesaria, pp. 94-95, 256-57; Pahlavi Rivayat, ed. Dhabhar, p….

ČAḠĀNA, the name given to four types of musical instruments. This spelling is found in most dictionaries. Sachs’ Real-Lexikon (p. 99) has čaqāna, and other forms are also found: čaḡān (Enjū Šīrāzī, II, p. 1425; Borhān-e qāṭeʿ ed. Moʿīn, II, p. 643), čaḡana (ibid., p. 646), and čaḡba (Dehḵodā, s.v.);…

ČAḠANĪ, ṬĀHER b. Abi’l-ʿAbbās Fażl b. Abī Bakr Moḥammad b. Abī Saʿd Moẓaffar b. Moḥtāj (d. 381/991), prince and poet of the ancient Iranian Āl-e Moḥtāj, ruler of Čaḡānīān (Čaḡān Ḵodāt). In a poem by Badīʿ Balḵī, (or Badāyeʿī Balḵī, a poet in his service) his patronymic is given as…

ČAḠĀNĪĀN (Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ; Marquart’s speculation [1938, p. 93] of an origin in Mongolian čagan “white” is baseless; at­tested in Sogdian writing as cγʾny [Henning, pp. 8-9]), a district of medieval Islamic Transoxania substantially comprising the basin…

ČAḠĀNRŪD (Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya, rising in what in medieval Islamic times were known as the Bottamān mountains and flowing south­wards through the principality of Čaḡānīān into the Oxus just above the important crossing-point of Termeḏ (modern Termez). Hence it…

ČAḠČARĀN, principal town and administrative capital of the province of Ḡōr, in the mountains of central Afghanistan. Until the mid-14th/20th century the spellings Čaqčarān and Čaḵčarān were also current, but Čaḡčarān is the prevailing usage today. The name has been attested since the 10th/16th century (Beveridge, p. 308). It originally…

ČAḠRĪ BEG DĀWŪD b. Mīḵāʾīl b. Saljūq, Abū Solaymān (b. in the 380s/990s, d. 452/1060), 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. All the subsequent rulers of this…

ČĀH “well.” Together with the well-known qanāt (subterranean water canals), wells (čāh) play a great part in the mobilization of the groundwater resources of Persia (Issar, Kardavānī). Beside the traditional man-­operated and animal-operated wells, the multiplication of motor-operated deep wells has recently brought important change in many regions. Traditional wells…