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ČOḠĀ BONUT (CHOGHA BONUT), archaeological site in lowland Susiana, in the present-day province of Ḵuzestān in southwestern Iran. Located at 32°13′20″ N, 48°30′18″ E, the site is about 20 km southeast of the city of Dezful and 5 km west of Čoḡā Miš (FIGURE 1). The importance of the site…

ČOḠĀ MĪŠ (Chogha Mish), the largest prehistoric and protohistoric site (ca. 17 ha) in the area below the Zagros foothills between Dezfūl and Šūštar. It was excavated by the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago for eleven seasons between 1340 Š./1961 and 1367 Š./1978, under the direction of P….

ČOḠĀ SAFĪD (Chogha Sefid), site in Ḵūzestān. Čoḡā Safīd is a prehistoric site on the Dehlorān (Deh Luran) plain, dating back to the 8th millennium b.c.e. Excavation of a step trench in 1348 Š./1969 uncovered six archeological phases representing some 1,500 years of occupation (Hole, 1977), but there remain deposits…

ČOḠĀ ZANBĪL (Chogha Zanbil), ancient Āl Untaš dNapiriša (Elamite) or Dūr Untaš (Assyrian), a city founded by the Elamite king Untaš Napiriša (formerly transcribed Untaš dGal; r. ca. 1275-40 B.C.E.; Hinz and Koch, pp. 116-17) about 40 km southeast of Susa at a strategic point on a main road leading…

ČOḠŪR (also čoḡor, čogūr, more commonly called sāz in former Soviet Azerbaijan), is the typical pyriform lute of the ʿāšeq, the professional minstrel of Azerbaijan. The ancestor of this instrument was probably the ṭanbūr of Šīrvān, described by ʿAbd-al-Qāder b. Ḡaybī Marāḡī (p. 200) in 809/1405, which was very popular…

COINS AND COINAGE (Arabo-Pers. sekka, سکّه), standardized units of metal used as a medium of exchange, first introduced into Persia by the Achaemenid Darius I (521-486 B.C.E.) Coins differ from earlier media of exchange in that they are usually uniform in weight and purity of the metal and are recognized…

Čol Iroq title Čol Iroq genre/topic Turkistan tanbur language   performer Farhād Qori Halimov instrument Turkistan tanbur composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 5:25 source Persian Song in Samarqand. Mahoor Institute of Culture and Art,…

COLCHIS, ancient Greek name of the region at the eastern end of the Black Sea and south of the Caucasus mountains, corresponding to the Georgian provinces of Imeretia, Mingrelia (Samegrelo), Guria and Ač’ara and the Pontic regions of northeastern Turkey. The ethnic composition of the ancient population of Colchis is…

COLETTI, Alessandro (b. Trieste, 1928, d. Rome, 1985), Italian scholar of Iranian languages and general oriental subjects, co-author with his wife, Hanne Grünbaum, of the most comprehensive Persian-Italian dictionary (1978) published in modern times. Coletti was trained in law at the University of Bologna, then taught literature in Italian secondary…

COLOGNE MANI CODEX (Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis), a lump of parchment fragments the size of a matchbox, containing a portion of the life and teachings of Mani, discovered in 1969 at an indeterminate spot in the area of Asyūṭ (ancient Lycopolis) in upper Egypt (Koenen, 1973, pp. 240-41), the smallest ancient…

COLOR (Pers. rang). i. Color symbolism in Persian literature. ii. Use and importance of color in Persian art. i. Color Symbolism in Persian Literature Colors are defined as “the attempt of light to become visible.” They act as a kind of veil through which the colorless light can be perceived….