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CASPIAN SEA, actually a lake, the largest in the world (estimated surface area in 1986: 378,400 km², volume 78,600 km³; approx. between lat 37° and 47° N, long 46° and 54° E); it is bounded on the south by Persia. i. Geography. ii. Diplomatic History in Modern Times.

CASPIAN SEA, actually a lake, the largest in the world (estimated surface area in 1986: 378,400 km², volume 78,600 km³; approx. between lat 37° and 47° N, long 46° and 54° E); it is bounded on the south by Persia. i. Geography Physical geography. I. Morphology and hydrology. The Caspian…

CASPIAN SEA ii. Diplomatic History in Modern Times. A new area of sub-systemic studies in international relations, which encompasses the Caspian basin and its immediate surroundings, emerged in the post-Soviet Union era, with its own prior long standing and complex regional history of competition and conciliation heretofore told predominantly in…

CASPIAN SEAL (Phoca caspica), the only mammal in the Caspian Sea. It is a relict species, endemic to the Caspian Sea and the deltas of rivers that discharge into it—the region where its ancestors lived when the sea was still connected to the oceans (FIGURE 1). Caspian seal is a…

CASPIANS (Gk. Káspioi), name of an ancient people dwelling along the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, whether north or south of the river Kura is not clear. The name is not attested in Old Iranian (it may have been *Kāspiya- or the like); it survives perhaps in the name…

CASSANDANE, wife of Cyrus II, an Achaemenian, sister of Otanes and daughter of Pharnaspes. She bore four children: Cambyses II, Smerdis (see bardiya), Atossa, and an unnamed daughter (see Herodotus, 2.1; 3.2, 3). According to Herodotus (2.1), Cyrus loved her dearly and, when she died, ordered all the subjects of…

CASSIA, a genus of shrubs and trees of the family Leguminosae (or Caesalpiniaceae in some classifications). This article deals only with the fruit of the species C. fistula L. ( = Cathartocarpus fistula Pers.), variously called drumstick tree, Indian laburnum, purging cassia, etc. The fruit of this tree (also called…

CASSIODORUS, Magnus Aurelius (b. ca. 485, d. after a.d. 580), Latin author of three historical works containing material on Iran. The senator Cassiodorus was born into a family of eastern, probably Syrian, origin long settled in Italy. Having won the confidence of Theodoric, king of the Goths, who ruled Italy…

CASTLES, primarily fortified country manors but also permanently inhabited defensive installations, maintained by the authorities along important land routes, and urban citadels, which functioned as administrative centers and places of refuge for inhabitants under siege, particularly in prehistoric and early historic times. The Old Persian word for “castle, fortress” is…

CASTOLUS, a plain east of Sardis, site of the mustering of troops from the satrapy of Sparda (Lydia) during Achaemenid times (Xenophon, Anabasis 1.1.2, 1.9.7, Hellenica 1.4.3; cf. Anabasis 1.2.2-5; Plutarch, Artaxerxes 2; Diodorus, 14.2.8, 19.2.6). The site is attested in Achaemenid times only in connection with Cyrus the Younger’s…

CASTRATION (of men; ḵaṣī kardan, ḵāya kešīdan, ḵᵛāja kardan). This article will focus on a discussion of castration in Islamic medical literature, on its legal status, and on its historical attestation in Islamic Persia (see also eunuchs and, for references to Arabic sources from the ʿAbbasid period, Brunschvig and Pellat)….

CAT (Khot. susi; Buddh. So. mwškyščh “wild cat,” Man. So. mwškyč, mwškyṇčh; Cl. Pers. pōšak, Pers. gorba, pūšak; Pashto pīšō; in the local dialects pīšī, mālī, nāzū, etc., see, e.g., Christensen, Contributions I, p. 183; II, p. 287). i. IN MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE Cats are not mentioned in literary Persian…

CAT ii. PERSIAN CAT In western Europe and in North America, what are called “Persian cats” are a breed of longhaired domestic cats with a massive body, measuring 40 to 50 cm in length, and up to 30 cm in the height of their withers (FIGURE 1). According to the…