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CLAVIJO, RUY GONZÁLEZ DE (d. 2 April 1412), ambassador from King Henry III of Castile and Leon (r. 1390-1406) to Tīmūr (Tamerlane; 771-807/1370-1405) in the years 805-08/1403-06 and author of an important travel account. Clavijo came from a prominent family, but his birth date is unknown and his life poorly…

CLEANSING i. In Zoroastrianism. ii. In Islamic Persia.  

CLEANSING i. In Zoroastrianism Cleansing is conceived as a cosmic and individual activity is an essential element in Zoroastrianism, which teaches that the assault of the Evil Spirit, Angra Mainyu (see ahriman), brings defilement on all the good creations of Ahura Mazdā and that they, in their struggle for salvation, must…

CLEANSING ii. In Islamic Persia The identification of unclean objects (najāsāt) and of the factors or agents that, within certain limits, may cleanse them (moṭahherāt) depends more on the interpretation of prophetic tradition and on juristic deduc­tion than it does on clear Koranic injunctions. None­theless, there is broad agreement on…

CLEARCHUS (b. ca. 390 or 410 b.c.e., the latter date based on Memnon’s report of his age as fifty-eight years at his death in 352), tyrant of Pontic Heracleia (modern Ereğli) in 363-52 b.c.e. As a young man he studied for four years with Isocrates and Plato in Athens (Memnon,…

CLEARCHUS OF SPARTA (b. Sparta ca. 450 b.c.e., d. Babylon 401 b.c.e.), son of Rhamphias, Greek general in the service of Cyrus the Younger (Thucydides, 8.8.2; cf. Xenophon, Anabasis 2.6.15). In 412 b.c.e., during the Peloponnesian war, he commanded a Lacedaemonian naval operation in the Hellespont, during which Byzantium was…

CLEITARCHUS (Gk. Kleítarchos), Greek histo­rian of the 4th century b.c.e., son of the historian Dinon of Colophon and author of a history of the exploits of Alexander the Great. Almost nothing is known about Cleitarchus’ life, though, according to Pliny, he was a “celebrated writer” (Natural History 10.136); it is not…

CLEMEN, CARL CHRISTIAN (b. Sommerfeld, near Leipzig, 30 March 1865; d. Bonn, 8 July 1940), Ger­man Protestant theologian and historian of religions who compiled the classical passages on Iranian reli­gion. Clemen studied at the universities of Leipzig, Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin and received his habili­tation from Halle in 1892. He…

CLEMENT of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens, probably b. Athens ca. 150 c.e., d. Cappadocia ca. 215), Greek convert to Christianity who became the leading theologian of his time, a polemicist particularly noted for his attempts to reconcile Greco-Roman thought with Christian teachings. He studied at the Christian catechetical school in…

(Pseudo-) CLEMENT, the unknown author of a work of fiction falsely ascribed to Pope Clement I (88-­97 CE) and now generally known as the Pseudo­-Clementines, which contains passages reflecting myths and teachings of Persian origin. The text has survived in two versions, a collection of homilies, purportedly missionary preachings of Saint…

CLIMATE. Both the climate of Persia as a whole and the differences in weather among its various re­gions are determined primarily by its location within the arid belt of the eastern hemisphere. The general dryness and barrenness of the country result from its position in relation to the planetary circulation…

CLIME (kešvar), ancient division of the earth’s surface. According to Iranian mythology the earth consists of seven concentric climes. In the Gathas they are referred to as būmyā haptaŋᵛha- “a seventh part of the earth” (Y. 32.3), with which one may compare Pahlavi būm ī haft kišwar “the earth of…

CLOCKS (Pers. sāʿat), devices for measuring and registering time. Early time-keeping devices. The sundial (sāʿat-e āftābī, sāʿat-e šamsī) was already known in antiquity. According to Vitruvius (9.8.1), in the early 4th century b.c.e. the Babylonian priest Berossus invented a simple version consisting of a hemisphere hollowed out of a cube and…

CLOQUET, LOUIS-ANDRÉ-ERNEST (b. Paris, 11 October 1818, d. Tehran, 1855 [exact date unknown]), French anatomist and, from 1262/1846 to 1271/1855, French minister to the court at Tehran, serving as personal physician to Moḥammad Shah (1250-64/1834-48) and Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah Qājār (1264-1313/1848-96). Ernest, the son of Hippolyte Cloquet (1787-1840), a well-known anatomist,…