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ČINWAD PUHL (Av. činuuatō pərətu-), traditionally thought to mean “the bridge of the separator” but recently shown to be “the bridge of the accumulator/collector” (Kellens, with references to earlier transla­tions), the name of a bridge that, according to a Mazdayasnian/Zoroastrian eschatological myth, leads from this world to the next and…

CIRCESIUM (Gk. Kirkēsion), a Roman border fortress in Mesopotamia (cf. Papyrus Dura, no. 60), on the spit of land formed where the Ḵābūr (Lat. Abora), the present-day al-Boṣayra, flows into the Euphrates (see maps in Kettenhofen). In the inscription of Šāpūr I on the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt at Naqš-e Rostam (ŠKZ)…

CIRCUMCISION, Pers. ḵatna, sonnat (formally also taṭhīr or ḵetān), ḵatnakonān, and sonnatkonān; the last two terms also refer to the festivities associated with the circumcision ritual. In Persia all Muslim and Jewish boys were and still are circumcised. The age of circumcision has varied from a few days after birth…

ČIŠPIŠ (OPers. č-i-š-p-i-š, Elamite Zi-iš-pi-iš, Babylonian Ši-iš-pi-iš), Old Persian personal name. The incorrect reading Čaišpiš is still occasionally seen (e.g., W. Hinz and H. Koch, Elamisches Wörterbuch, Berlin, 1987, p. 1293). The Greek form of the name is given by Herodotus (7.11.2) as Teíspēs or Tíspēs. The name is probably…

CISSIANS (Gk. Kíssioi), a name for the Susians, the Elamite inhabitants of Susiana (Strabo 15.3.2; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Soûsa); the Cissians were mentioned by several Greek authors, the earliest of whom was Aeschylus, who called Susa (mégʾ ástu Sousídos “the great city of Susiana”) tò Kissíōn pólisma “the town of…

ČISTĀ and Čisti, Avestan derivatives of the verb cit “to notice, to understand.” Čistā is in many respects an enigmatic term. It designates a minor goddess mentioned only in Yt. 16, which is dedicated to her although it is known as the Dēn yašt, and once in Yt. 10.126. Her…

ČĪT (borrowed from Indian, where it occurs in many dialects with the meaning “spotted cloth,” probably of non Indo-Aryan origin; Turner, no. 5036; cf. Irwin and Brett, p. 1), cotton cloth decorated with block-printed or painted designs in multiple colors. The term čīt passed into English as “chintz,” now the…

CITIES i. Geographical introduction. ii. City planning, construction, and architecture. See Supplement iii. Administration and social organization. iv. Modern urbanization and modernization in Persia. v. Modern urbanization and modernization in Afghanistan. vi. Urban Informal Settlements in Modern Iran.

CITIES i. Geographical Introduction  There is a long history of settlement on Persian territory, where urban life was firmly established in antiquity, and cities continued to proliferate, though, owing to fluctuations in the population, they were highly unstable. Many of those early cities have disappeared; although the ruins of a…

CITIES iii. Administration and Social Organization This article on the administration and social organization of Persian cities in the Islamic period incorporates discussion of the following terms and offices: aḥdāṯ, amīr, amīr al-sūq, beglarbegī, ʿasas, čerāḡčī, dārūḡa, dārūḡa-šāgerd, dārūḡačī, dīvānbegī, farrāš, gazma, goḏaṛčī, ḥākem, kadḵodā, kalāntar, mehmāndār-bāšī, mīr-šab, mīrāb, moḥaṣṣes,…

CITIES iv. Modern Urbanization and Modernization in Persia Over a period of decades the rapidly growing popula­tion of Persia has simultaneously become increasingly urbanized. More and more people live in increasingly larger cities, and the largest cities tend to grow at a rate above the average (see Table 44). These…

CITIES v. Modern Urbanization and Modernization in Afghanistan Although the history of cities on Afghan territory has been long and rich, modern Afghanistan is nevertheless among the least urbanized countries in Asia. The portion of the population living in cities was estimated at 10-11 percent of the settled population in…