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CAPITALS, in architectural terminology tran­sitional elements between weight-bearing supports (see COLUMNS) and the roofs or vaults supported (Wasmuths Lexikon, p. 320). 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…

CAPPADOCIA, Anatolian Achaemenid satrapy, Hellenistic-era Iranian kingdom, and imperial Roman province. The Old Persian name of the satrapy was Katpatuka; the Sasanian inscriptions have Middle Persian kpwtkyʾy/kpwtkydʾy, Parthian kpwtkyʾ. In Greek sources we find the Cappadocians called Leuko­surioi or Surioi (e.g., Herodotus, 3.90, 5.49.6, 7.72; Strabo, Geography 12.542, 544), a…

CAPUCHINS IN PERSIA. The mission of the Capuchins in Persia began with the arrival of two French monks, Father Gabriel of Paris (ca. 1595-1641) and Father Pacifique of Provins (1588-1648), at Isfahan late in 1628. It was to last for more than a hundred years. The two monks were sent…

ČĀR BAKR (lit. “four Bakrs,” possibly referring to descendants of Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Saʿd, d. 360/970, who are buried there), family necropolis of the powerful Jūybāri shaikhs (see bukhara iii) near the village of Sumitan (Samtin), about 5 km outside the Šīrgarān Gate of Bukhara. It grew up around…

CARACAL (Felis caracal Schreber = Lynx caracal, Caracal caracal; Figure 1), also called “desert lynx” or “Persian lynx”; in Persian, sīāhgūš, lit. “black-eared,” so called because the back of its long, tufted, black-tipped ears is distinctively black (the name caracal itself comes—ultimately—from Turkish qara-qūlāq/kara-kūlāk, lit. “black-ear(ed),” as a calque of…

CARACALLA, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla (Caracallus in Historia Augusta 9.7ff.) because of his hooded robe, b. A.D. 4 April 188, d. April 217, who conducted a campaign against the Parthians. The most important source on his career is Cassius Dio’s Roman History, of which only…

CARAKA, 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 according to the Chinese version of the Buddhist text Sūtrālaṃkāra. It has been suggested that this Caraka was the same person as…

ČARAND PARAND (commonly pronounced 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 (b. 1297/1879, d. 1334 Š./1956) published in the weekly paper Ṣūr-e Esrāfīl (q.v.; Tehran) from 17…

CARAVAN (Pers. kār(a)vān, Mid. Pers. kārwān in Narseh’s inscription at Paikuli, connected with OPers. kāra “(group of) people, army”), a form of collective transport of men and goods organized to ensure defense against armed attack, sufficient provisions for both travelers and animals, and adherence to predetermined routes and schedules. In…

CARAVANSARY (also Caravansarai, Caravansaray, Pers. kārvān-sarā/-sarāy “lodging for caravans,” from kār(a)vān “caravan” and sarāy “house”; sometimes called ḵān), 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…

CARD GAMES (ganjafa-bāzī, waraq-bāzī). Card games were invented in China in the 7th-8th centuries and via India were brought to Persia, whence they reached the Arab world and Europe. The Persian game of ganjafa, like chess, spread to the Arab west and was popular around 800 (around 1400) among the…

CARDAMOM, hel in modern Persian (earlier hīl; arabicized as hāl; from Skt. elā), the aromatic seeds of several plants of the family Zingiberaceae. Cardamom is mentioned in Zoroastrian literature under the name of kākūla (from Assyrian gāqūlu [Meyerhof, Ebn Maymūn, no. 116, n., p. 58] or Akkadian qāqūlā [Levey, Kendī,…

CARDUCHI (Latin form of Greek Kardoûkhoi), warlike tribes that in antiquity occupied the hilly country along the upper Tigris near the Assyrian and Median borders, in present-day western Kurdistan. The Carduchi were first mentioned in the early 4th century b.c. by Xenophon, who described them as living in villages and…