Explore Iranica

CILICIA (3rd-cent. CE Mid. Pers. klkyʾy, Parth. kylkyʾ), the southeastern portion of the present Turkish coast, a satrapy of the Achaemenid empire (6th-4th centuries BCE), subsequently incorporated into the Macedonian and Roman empires. There is no connected narrative of Achaemenid Cilicia. Strabo (14.5) provided a cursory description of both coast and…

CIMMERIANS, a nomadic people, most likely of Iranian origin, who flourished in the 8th-7th centuries b.c.e. The name. The English form is ultimately derived from Gk. Kimmérioi via Lat. Cimmerii. In Assyrian and Babylonian sources various forms are found: Ga-mir, Gamir-(r)a, Gi-mir-a-a, Gi-mir-ra-a-a, and so on (see, e.g. Parpola, 1970a,…

ČĪN TĪMŪR (Čin Temür; d. 633/1235-36), the first governor of Khorasan and Māzandarān on behalf of the Mongols. According to Jovaynī (II, p. 218), he was a Qarakhitayan; Rašīd-al-Dīn (Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ, Moscow, I, p. 313) ascribes him to the Öngüt (Ūnkūt), though elsewhere (Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ II, ed. Blochet, p. 37;…

CINEMA in Persia i. History of cinema in Persia. ii. Feature films. iii. Documentary films. iv. Film censorship. v. Filmography.

CINEMA i. History of Cinema in Persia The beginnings. On 7 Rabīʿ I 1318/8 June 1900, during his first trip to Europe, Moẓaffar-al-Dīn Shah (1313-24/1896-1907) saw at Contrexeville, France, scenes filmed with the cinématographe, the French motion-picture camera that had been invented only five years earlier (Moẓaffar-al-Dīn Shah, pp. 100-01)….

CINEMA ii. Feature Films  Feature-film production in Persia spans six decades and can be divided into four distinct periods, each reflecting contemporary social, cultural, and political realities. The pioneering years (1308-15 Š./1930-36). The first Persian feature film, a silent comedy called Ābī o Rābī (1309 Š./1931), was an imitation of…

CINEMA iii. Documentary Films Private documentary cinema (1318-33/1900-15). Be­fore World War I most Persian documentaries were sponsored and viewed only by the Qajar ruling family and the upper classes. They were apparently technically primitive and in a simple narrative format, consisting of footage of news events, topics of current interest,…

CINEMA iv. Film Censorship Persian cinema has been subject from its beginnings to official censorship responding to the concerns of the government, religious establishments, professional groups, and even film distributors. The earliest film censorship in Persia occurred in the 1320s/early 1900s, when the pioneering film distributors instructed the interpreters hired…

CINEMA v. Filmography All films discussed in i-iv, above, are listed here by year of release and alphabetically within each year. When the information is available producers are listed after the translated titles. F indicates a feature film, D a documentary; an asterisk indicates that the film was released in…

ČĪNĪ (lit. “Chinese”; borrowed in Arabic as ṣīnī), generic term for Chinese ceramic wares, including porcelain, a translucent, white-bodied ware fired at very high temperatures. From at least as early as the Tang period (618-907 c.e.), ceramics were being fired at high temperatures in China; that they were also exported…

CINNAMUS (< Gk. kinnamon or kinnamōmon “cinnamon tree,” a word borrowed from the Phoenician, according to Herodotus, 3.111; cf. Hebrew qinnāmōn), putative rival of Artabanus (Ardawān) II (12-38 c.e.) as king of the Arsacids (Flavius Josephus, 20.3.2). During his reign Artabanus faced a succession of challenges to his authority. After...

CINTĀMAṆI, the “wish-fulfilling jewel,” a motif consisting of either a single globe with a pointed extension at the apex or three such globes; either version could be surrounded by a flaming halo. In Persian art this motif was borrowed from the art of Mahayana Buddhism, where it was particularly associated…