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the CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY, a collection of manuscripts, printed works, and artifacts, predominantly Oriental, assembled by Alfred Chester Beatty and opened to the public in Dublin in 1954. i. The library and its founder. ii. Persian manuscript collection. iii. Coptic Manichean manuscripts. i. The Library and Its Founder Alfred Chester…

CHILAS, township in the upper Indus valley in Pakistani-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, almost directly south of Gilgit and located on the new Karakorum high­way between Pakistan and China. In late antiquity there was a considerable Iranian presence in the surrounding area. The Sakas formed an important ethnic element along the…

CHILDREN i. Childbirth in Zoroastrianism. ii. Childbirth in modern Persian folklore. iii. Legal rights of children in the Sasanian period. iv. Legal rights of children in modern Persia. v. Child rearing in modern Persia. vi. Child rearing among Zoroastrians in modern Persia. vii. Children’s literature.  

CHILDREN i. Childbirth in Zoroastrianism The Zoroastrian community has traditionally regarded marriage as having a threefold function: to propagate the human race, to spread the Zoroastrian faith, and to contribute to the victory of the good cause (Sanjana, p. 508). The birth of a child is viewed as of intrinsic…

CHILDREN ii. In Modern Persian Folklore Childbirth (zāymān, formal ważʿ-e ḥaml) in traditional Persian society, as in many other cultures, has generally been associated with magical practices and superstitions. From the moment of conception the woman is in a state of transition from one status to another, with one foot…

CHILDREN iii. Legal Rights of Children in the Sasanian Period Although the corpus of Sasanian civil law was designed primarily to regulate matters among the lower classes, that is, the common people and slaves, the portions on adop­tion, inheritance, guardianship, and the like were equally applicable to the upper classes…

CHILDREN iv. Legal Rights of Children in Modern Persia Generally speaking the modern Persian legal system has evolved in accordance with Islamic jurisprudence. The rights discussed here are those legally granted to minors between birth and maturity. A person is consid­ered a minor (ṣaḡīr) until he or she has attained…

CHILDREN v. Child Rearing in Modern Persia The topic of child rearing (from birth to social adulthood in the mid-teens) is largely neglected in systematic research; there are no comparative studies of child-rearing practices among different ethnic and cultural groups in the country and only a few specialized studies (Rudolph-Touba)….

CHILDREN vi. Child Rearing Among Zoroastrians in Modern Persia In the first half of the 13th/20th century most children were born at home with the assistance of the midwife. Immediately after birth the infant was bathed to cleanse it of polluting substances and wrapped in pieces of cloth called landog….

CHILDREN vii. Children’s Literature Children’s literature is a genre employing themes, language, and illustrations geared to the developmental levels of children, introduced in Persia in the 13th/19th century. Before 1911. Up to the Constitutional movement (1323-29/1905-11) the standard curriculum of traditional Persian elementary schools (maktabs), which were pri­vately operated, included…

CHILIARCH, Greek title of one of the chief offices of state in Achaemenid Persia, presumably translated from Old Persian hazārapati-, attested in Greek as azarapateîs (plur.; Hesychius, ed. K. Latte, Copenhagen, 1953, I, p. 52), explained as eisaggeleîs, that is, announcers or ushers. In Parthian the corresponding title was hazārpet…

CHINESE TURKESTAN, IRANIAN ELEMENTS IN i. Geographical overview ii. In pre-Islamic times iii. From the advent of Islam to the Mongols iv. In the Mongol period v. Under the Khojas vi. Iranian groups in Sinkiang since the 1750s vii. Manicheism in Chinese Turkestan and China viii. Turkish-Iranian language contacts

CHINESE TURKESTAN i. Geographical Overview The eastern portion of the Central Asian land mass (see central asia i. geography), between 70° and 100° E and 25° and 45° N, encompasses Chinese Turkestan, now Sinkiang (Xin-jiang) Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, with the Tarim basin and the…

CHINESE TURKESTAN ii. In Pre-Islamic Times In antiquity the Tarim and Dzungar (Zungar, Jungar) basins lay at the crossroads of three main Eurasian routes (see i, above; EIr. II/6, p. 595 fig. 47). These three routes included the Southern Silk Road, which skirted the northern foothills of the Altin Tagh…

CHINESE TURKESTAN iii. From the Advent of Islam to the Mongols Chinese influence in the Tarim basin began to wane after the battle of Talas (Ṭarāz) in 134/751, when Tang troops under Gao Xian-zhi were defeated by Muslim armies led by Zīād b. Ṣāleḥ (Ebn al-Aṯīr, V, p. 449; Chavannes,…