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COMMUNISM iv. In Afghanistan The Afghan Communist party, Ḥezb-e demōkrātīk-e ḵalq-e Afḡānestān (People’s democratic party of Afghanistan, P.D.P.A.) was officially founded in 1344 Š./1965, at a time when political parties were illegal in Afghanistan. Two other durable Afghan Marxist-Leninist groups were active in the same general period. The first was…

COMPUTERS, electronic data-processing equipment, in Persia. The growth of computer use in Persia. In 1333 Š./1954 Edāra-ye āmar-e ʿomūmī (General statistics office, since renamed Markaz-e āmār-e Īrān “Iranian statistical center”) imported from International Business Machines (IBM) several unit records, electromechanical systems that were among the forerunners of modern computers. These…

CONCESSIONS (emtīāzāt), grants by a state to citizens, aliens, or other states of rights to carry out specific economic activities and of capitulatory rights on its territory. i. In the Safavid period. ii. In the Qajar period. iii. In the Pahlavi period. i. In the Safavid Period In Safavid Persia…

CONFEDERATION OF IRANIAN STUDENTS, NATIONAL UNION (Konfederāsīūn-e jahānī-e moḥaṣṣelīn wa dānešjūyān-e īrānī etteḥādīya-ye mellī), an organization purporting to be the political and corporate (ṣenfī) representative of Persian students abroad, as well as in Persia, during the 1960s and 1970s. The roots of the Confederation lay in Persian student circles formed…

CONFEDERATIONS, TRIBAL. A discussion of tribal confederations in the Iranian world must begin with recognition that there is a problem in defining the terms “tribe” and “confederation.” The concept of tribe is notoriously inexact, not least in the context of Iranian history, where groups defined by a wide range of…

CONFESSIONS i. In the Zoroastrian faith. ii. In the Manicheism. i. In the Zoroastrian faith Acknowledgment, repentance, and confession of sin appear to have been integral parts of the Zoroastrian profession of faith (āstawānīh or dēn ī mazdēsnān āstawānīh). According to Mary Boyce (Zoroastrianism I, pp. 320-21, referring to Rodhe),…

CONGRATULATIONS (Pers. šād-bāš, Ar.-Pers. tabrīk), the custom of conveying congratulations on such happy occasions as the birth of a child, a birthday anniversary, a marriage, a coronation, or a national or religious festival. During the Sasanian period the term āfrīn was probably used to express congratulations (e.g., āfrīn of mobedān…

CONON OF ATHENS (b. Athens before 444 b.c.e., d. Cyprus after 392 b.c.e.), son of Timotheus (Pausanias, 3.9.2, 8.52.4), a leading Athenian admiral during the Peloponnesian and Corinthian wars and one of twenty commanders considered worthy of biographies by the notoriously unreliable Roman author Cornelius Nepos (1st century b.c.e.). In…

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF PERSIAN MONUMENTS. In almost every historical period some restoration of Persian monuments has been undertaken either by state authorities or through the efforts of charitable individuals. The concept of restoration has generally involved repairs, resurfacing, and even complete renewal of a monument, usually without knowledge of…

CONSPIRACY THEORIES in Persia, a complex of beliefs attributing the course of Persian history and politics to the machinations of hostile foreign powers and secret organizations. In contemporary social psychology such theories are defined as elaborate and internally consistent systems of “collective delusions,” often tenaciously held and extremely difficult to…