Explore Iranica

CALMEYER, Peter, German archaeologist and Iranologist (b. 5 September 1930 in Halle, d. 22 November 1995 in Berlin). His father, Hans Georg Calmeyer, an attorney-at-law, and his mother, Ruth, both came from Westphalia, and the family moved there to settle in Osnabrück in 1931. Peter attended Lienenschweg elementary school, but,…

ČĀLŪS, 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. Its population was estimated at 29,000 in 1363 Š./1984 (Markaz-e Āmār-Īrān, p. 49). The name of the baḵš of Čālūs, Kalārestāq, was formerly…

CAMA ORIENTAL INSTITUTE (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. i. Foundation and functions. ii. The library.   i. Foundation and Functions During the last few years of Cama’s…

CAMA, KHARSHEDJI RUSTAMH (b. 11 Novem­ber 1831, d. 20 August 1909; Figure 1), Parsi Zoroastrian scholar and community leader. His father Rustamji, who died when Cama was eight, was a China trader; his mother was Manockbai Gazdar. At the age of eight he was married to his first cousin, Awabai…

CAMBADENE, Latin form of Old Persian Kamba(n)da (spelled ka-ba-da; Elamite ka-um-pan-tas; Babylonian URUka-am-pa-da-ʾ; Aramaic ḥnbn), the name of a region (dahyāuš) in ancient Media and present Persian Kurdistan. An older theory that the name derives from Elamite Hamban, a tribe living in a tributary basin on the left bank of…

CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF IRAN, 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), of which the first…

CAMBYSENE (Latin form of Gk. Kambysēnē), name of a region mentioned for the first time in Strabo’s Geography as one of the northernmost provinces of Armenia, bordering on the Caucasus mountains (11.14.4), and also as a rugged and waterless region through which a road connecting Albania and Iberia passed (Strabo,…

CAMBYSES (OPers. Kambūǰiya-, Elamite Kanbuziya, Akkadian Kambuziya, Aram. Knbwzy), the name of two kings of the Achaemenid dynasty. Accord­ing to some scholars (e.g., Hüsing, pp. 320-22; cf. Frye, p. 87), the name was originally Elamite. Others connect it with Kamboja-, the name of an Iranian people who lived in northwest…

ČAMČAMĀL (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. The main products are grain, cereals, sugar…

CAMEL, šotor. i. Etymology. ii. In Persian history and economy. iii. In modern Persia. iv. Camel terminology. v. Šotor-qorbānī. i. Etymology The Indo-Iranian word *uštra-, whence Vedic uṣṭra-, Avestan uštra- (fem. uštrā-), and Old Persian uša° (in uša-bāri “camel-borne”), is probably derived from the Indo-European root ṷes “to be wet”…

CAMEL THORN (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. Rechinger (1984, pp. 470-75), following the botanical interpretation and terminology of B. A. Keller and K. K. Shaparenko (1933), reports (for the area covered…

CAMERON, GEORGE GLENN, philologist and his­torian, b. 30 July 1905 in Washington, Pennsylvania, d. 14 September 1979 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Cameron received the A.B. degree from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, in 1927. After two years as a high­-school teacher and principal he took A.M. and Ph.D. degrees…

CAMPBELL, JOHN (1799-1870), British envoy to Persia, 1830-35. While a captain in the 2nd Madras Light Cavalry, Campbell joined the Persian mission of John Kinneir MacDonald as second secretary in 1826. During the second Russo-Persian war (1826-28) he functioned as liaison officer between MacDonald and the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā…

CAMPBELL, JOHN NICHOLL ROBERT  ii. The Archives  Captain Sir John Nicholl Robert Campbell (b. England, 25 May 1799; d. England, 1870), was British envoy to Iran from 1831 to 1835.  His father, Sir Robert Campbell first Bart (1771-1858), was a merchant at Madras from 1796 and director in the East…

CAMPHOR (NPers. kāfūr; Mid. Pers. kāpūr, perhaps directly from Malay kāpūr; but cf. Sogd. kpwr “camphor” < Prakrit kappūra-, Sims-Williams, p. 137, suggesting the parallel Middle Pers. derivation kappūr > kāpūr; cf. Skt. karpūra; cf. Mayrhofer, Dictio­nary I, p. 175), a strong-smelling volatile white solid essential oil obtained from two…