Explore Iranica

CENTRAL TREATY ORGANIZATION (CENTO), a mutual defense and economic cooperation pact among Persia, Turkey, and Pakistan, with the participation of the United Kingdom and the United States as associate members. CENTO replaced the Baghdad Pact Organization, after Iraq withdrew from it in Farvardīn 1338 Š./March 1959. The pro­-Soviet Iraqi “revolutionary” government…

ČERĀḠ, lamps (Man. Mid. Pers. crʾh, Man. Parth. crʾγ, Pahl. čirāγ, So. crʾ(ʾ)γ, Khot. cärau, etc., see Bailey, Dictionary, p. 103, as well as the etymological speculations in Bailey, 1959, pp. 120-25; loanword in Aramaic šrgʾ, see Telegdi, p. 255). Various kinds of lamps were used in Persia before the…

ČERĀḠ KHAN ZĀHEDĪ b. Shaikh Šarīf, a descendant of Shaikh Zāhed Gīlānī (q.v.), the celebrated moršed (spiritual director) of Shaikh Ṣafī-al-Dīn, the eponymous founder of the Safavid order (Ṣafawīya); hence Čerāḡ Khan was also known as Pīrzāda (Haneda, p. 196, quoting the Ḵolāṣat al-sīar of Moḥammad Maʿṣūm Eṣfahānī, pp. 109-10)….

ČERĀḠ-E DEHLĪ (b. at Avadh, ca. 675/1276-77; d. at Delhi, 18 Ramażān 757/14 September 1356), the title of Shaikh Naṣīr-al-Dīn Maḥmūd, the last of the five great early saints of the Indian Češtī order (see češtīya). He was the son of Shaikh Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd-al-Laṭīf Yazdī, a prosperous wool merchant…

ČERĀḠ-E HEDĀYAT (“lamp of guidance”), a monolingual Persian dictionary by the Indo-Muslim poet and scholar Serāj-al-Din ʿAli Khan Ārzu. Its title was taken from a verse by Neẓāmi (ed. Dabirsiāqi, p. 2), and also alludes to the author’s reputed ancestor, Naṣir-al-Din Čerāḡ-e Dehli. Completed at Delhi under the patronage of…

ČERĀḠ-ʿALĪ KHAN SERĀJ-AL-MOLK ZANGANA (d. after 1281/1864-65), a leading govern­ment official during the early reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah. Originally a prominent member of the Zangana tribe, Čerāḡ-ʿAlī began his government career as a secretary (monšī) in the provincial administration of Azerbaijan. He was a member of the Persian delegation at…

ČERĀḠĀNĪ (also čerāḡān, čerāḡbānī, čerāḡbārān), the decoration of buildings and open spaces with lights during festivals and on occasions like weddings, coronations, royal birthdays, circumcision ceremonies, and so on. It may have originated in the tradition of lighting large fires to celebrate Nowrūz (new year) and Sada (festival of fire),…

ČERĀḠHĀ RĀ MAN ḴĀMUŠ MIKONAM  (I turn off the lights, Tehran, 2001), the first and most acclaimed novel by Zoya Pirzad (Zoyā Pirzād, b. Abadan, 1952), and the second to be penned by an Iranian-Armenian writer, after Ālice Ārezumāniān’s Hama az yek (All from one, Tehran, 1963).  Set in the…

ČERĀM or ČORŪM, a small tribal confederacy (īl) inhabiting the dehestān of Čerām, in the Kūhgīlūya region, in southwestern Persia. The residence of its chiefs is at Talgerd, some 50 kilometers northeast of Behbahān. Today the Čerāms are almost all sedentary. In 1362 Š./1983 only 786 families were nomads (kūčrow;…

CERAMICS i. The Neolithic period through the Bronze Age in northeastern and north-central Persia. ii. The Neolithic period in northwestern Persia. iii. The Neolithic period in central and western Persia. iv. The Chalcolithic period in the Zagros highlands. v. The Chalcolithic period in southern Persia. vi. Uruk, Proto-Elamite, and early…

CERAMICS i. The Neolithic Period through the Bronze Age in Northeastern and North-central Persia I. Northeastern Persia The ceramic tradition of northeastern Persia devel­oped in parallel but distinct sequences in the Gorgān lowlands and the Dāmḡān highlands, including the parts of the Atrak region adjacent to both. These sequences were influenced…

CERAMICS ii. The Neolithic Period in Northwestern Persia The initial occupation of Persian Azerbaijan by farming groups took place in the second half of the 7th millennium B.C.E. The best known site of this period is Hajji Firuz (Ḥājī Fīrūz) Tepe, located in the Ošnū-­Soldūz valley and approximately contemporary with…

CERAMICS iii. The Neolithic Period in Central and Western Persia Present knowledge of the development of Neolithic ceramics in Luristan and Kurdistan, covering a period from the late 8th millennium to the middle of the 6th millennium B.C.E. is based primarily on evidence from three excavated sites—Ganj Dareh (Ganj-Dara), Tepe…

CERAMICS iv. The Chalcolithic Period in the Zagros Highlands The Zagros Chalcolithic, spanning more than two millennia (ca. 5500-3300 cal. B.C.E.), is characterized by diverse ceramic assemblages, of which the distri­bution and interrelations are still imperfectly understood (for a chronological synthesis and list of calibrated [“cal. B.C.”] radiocarbon dates, see…

CERAMICS v. The Chalcolithic Period in Southern Persia The evolution of ceramics in southern Persia between 5000 and 3300 B.C.E., reflects an increasingly distinct regional culture and evolving economic interaction with other parts of Persia. The start of this era was characterized by small, self-sufficient farming villages with ceramics, artifacts,…