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ČĀY “tea” ( < Chi. ch’a; Mathews’ Chinese English Dictionary, no. 101 ), shrub of the genus Camellia and beverage made from its leaves, probably the most popular drink throughout the Iranian world. The spread of tea in the Persian world. Berthold Laufer’s remark that “It would be very desirable...

ČĒČAST (Av. Čaēčasta-), a mythical lake in eastern Iran, later identified in the Pahlavi and Persian sources with Lake Urmia (or Kabūdān “dark blue lake”) in Azerbaijan (Bundahišn, TD2, p. 92.2, tr. Anklesaria, pp. 114-15; Nozhat al-qolūb, ed. Le Strange, pp. 80, 85, 241; Tārīḵ-e gozīda, ed. A.-H. Navāʾī, Tehran,…

CEDRENUS, GEORGIUS, twelfth-century Byzantine historian who edited the Synopsis Historiōn of John Skylitzēs (text ed. by I. Bekker, Georgius Cedrenus Ioannis Scylitzae ope, Bonn, 1839). He relates “Of his lineage [i.e., of Ninos, king of Assyria] was also Zōroastrēs, the notorious astronomer, born amongst the Persians: he prayed to be…

ČEGEL (Jekel), name of a Turkish people in Central Asia known in Persian poetry for the extraordinary beauty of their youths. The earliest reference to them in Islamic sources is found in Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, which gives a somewhat confused definition of their territory (cf. their location vis-à-vis the Toḵs, ed….

ČEGĪNĪ or Čeganī, a tribe that originated in northwestern Persia but is now scattered in Luristan, the Qazvīn region, and Fārs. According to Bedlīsī (p. 189) and Eskandar Beg (I, p. 141; tr. Savory, I, p. 227); it is a Kurdish tribe. However, O. Mann (p. xxiv) suggested that the…

ČEHEL SOTŪN, ISFAHAN, Safavid royal palace used for coronations and the reception of foreign embassies. It stands in the center of a large garden (formerly ca. 7 ha) extending between the Meydān-e Šāh and the Čahārbāḡ. The layout of these gardens, with three walks shaded by plane trees, dates from…

ČEHEL SOTŪN, KABUL, palace on a small, terraced hill rising at the southern end of a 30-acre walled garden about six miles south of the city center. At the end of the 13th/19th century the garden was confiscated by the amir ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān (1297-­1319/1880-1901; see afghanistan x. political history) from Lt….

ČEHEL SOTŪN, QAZVĪN, a Safavid pavilion that stands amid gardens in the central meydān (square) of the old city and in which the Qazvīn museum is installed. Qazvīn was the capital of Persia between 955/1548, when Shah Ṭahmāsb I settled the court there, and 1005/1596-97, when Shah ʿAbbās I moved…

ČEHEL TANĀN (“the forty dervishes,” popularly called Čeltan), a minor takīya (monastery) situated in the northeastern section of Shiraz, a short distance north of the tomb of Ḥāfeẓ and south of Haft Tanān (“the seven dervishes”). This area was formerly an open plain known as Moṣallā, but nowadays all three…

ČEHEL ṬŪṬĪ (forty parrot [stories]), the designation of collections of entertaining stories about the wife of a merchant and a pair of parrots, several versions of which are current in Persia and which are derived from older collections called ṭūṭī-nāmas (book of the parrots). The stories are inserted in a…

ČEHR (Av. čiθra-; OPers. ciça; MPers., Parth. čihr). Following Bartholomae most scholars recognize two homographic neuter substantives čiθra- in Avestan, one meaning “face, appearance,” which is translated in Pahlavi as paydāg, and another rendered in Pahlavi as tōhmag and denoting “origin, lineage,” as well as “seed,” although the latter sense…

ČEHRANEMĀ (lit. “mirror”), the name of an illustrated Persian newspaper and periodical published in Egypt (1322-1338 Š./1904-59, with interruptions), first in Alexandria (vols. 1-2/2) from 15 Moḥarram 1322/2 April 1904 to 1 Jomādā 1323/3 August 1905, then in Cairo from 10 Ramażān 1323/8 November 1905 to 1316 Š./March 1938. Čehranemā…

ČELEBĪ (Čalabī), FATḤ-ALLĀH ʿĀREF or ʿĀrefī, 10th/16th-century poet and author of a Šāh-nāma (Solaymān-nāma) extolling the Ottoman rulers. All contemporary sources agree that he was of Persian origin, but none furnish reliable information on his exact place of origin or that of his father. Some sources ascribe either to ʿĀref…

ČELEBĪ (Čalabī), ʿĀREF (670-719/1272-1320), the son of Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Solṭān Walad and the grand­son of Mawlānā Jalāl-al-Dīn Moḥammad Rūmī. His mother was Fāṭema Ḵātūn, daughter of Ṣalāḥ-al-Dīn Zarkūb, one of Rūmī’s foremost ḵalīfas, and he was born on 8 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 670/7 June 1272. His original name, Ferīdūn, as well as the laqab…

ČELLA, term referring to any forty-day period. i. In Persian folklore. ii. In Sufism.   i. In Persian Folklore In terms of the traditional calendar there are three čellas in a year. One in the summer, čella-ye tābestān, and two in the winter. The summer čella, also called qalb al-asad…