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CONTI, NICOLO` DE’ (1395-ca. 1469), Venetian merchant who traveled in the east from 1414 until 1438. He first learned Arabic at Damascus, then visited Baghdad and Basra, traveling by sea from there to Bandar-e ʿAbbās, Hormoz, and Qalhāt on the ʿOmān coast, where he learned Persian. Conti then traveled to…

CONTRACTS (usually ʿaqd), legally enforceable undertakings between two or more consenting parties. Contract law is concerned with such questions as definition of contract, how a contract is drawn up, when it is or is not enforceable, how it may be broken, and the results of failure to comply with its…

CONVERSION i. Of Iranians to the Zoroastrian faith. ii. Of Iranians to Islam. iii. To Imami Shiʿism in India. iv. Of Persian Jews to other religions. v. To Babism and the Bahai faith. vi. To Protestant Christianity in Persia. vii. To the Zoroastrian faith in the modern period.

CONVERSION i. Of Iranians to the Zoroastrian faith Although modern Zoroastrians question whether their religion even allows conversion (see vii, below), Zoroastrianism, as an ethical and essentially monotheistic religion based on a historical figure, originally had pronounced missionary characteristics, as is clear from the extent of its dissemination. An example…

CONVERSION ii. Of Iranians to Islam Iranians were among the very earliest converts to Islam, and their conversion in significant numbers began as soon as the Arab armies reached and overran the Persian plateau. Despite some resistance from elements of the Zoroastrian clergy and other ancient religions, the anti-Islamic policies…

CONVERSION iii. To Imami Shiʿism in India South Asians adopted Imami, or Twelver, Shiʿism in great numbers, mostly after the Safavid conquest of Persia in the first decade of the 16th century. Many Persians had emigrated to southern India during the Mongol period (13-14th centuries), and when Imami Shiʿism became…

CONVERSION iv. Of Persian Jews to other religions In the Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian periods relations between the Jews and the Persian authorities were friendly, and there is no evidence of forced or voluntary conversion of Jews to Zoroastrianism. In fact, conversion to Judaism was widespread during the Parthian period;…

CONVERSION v. To Babism and the Bahai faith The Bahai faith was adopted by tens of thousands of people in late 19th-century Persia. These conver­sions probably began on a small scale some time between 1280/1864 and 1283/1866. In 1279/1863 the prominent Babi Bahāʾ-Allāh, while in exile in Baghdad, had declared himself…

CONVERSION vi. To Protestant Christianity in Persia The conversion of Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, Muslims, and Zoroastrians in Persia to Protestantism as the result of missionary activity by foreign societies and national churches is discussed here (for conversion in a broader sense, see Horner, 1981; Lofland and Skonovd; Rambo; Tippett). It…

CONVERSION vii. To the Zoroastrian faith in the modern period Modern Zoroastrians disagree on whether it is permissible for outsiders to enter their religion. Now scattered in small minority communities in Persia, India, Europe, and North America and without a reli­gious hierarchy, the Zoroastrians are governed by councils and high…

COOKBOOKS, classical, in Persian. Relatively few books in Persian exclusively devoted to the prepa­ration of food are known, even though references to a highly developed cuisine in Persia in premodern times are found in medical, religious, historical, and poetic texts (e.g., Ebn Qotayba, III, pp. 203-05). The poet Abū Esḥāq…

COOKIES (kolūča, nān-e kolūča, kolīča) in Per­sia. Cookies were already mentioned in such early Persian works as Moḥammad b. Monawwar’s Asrār al-tawḥīd (p. 150), Moḥammad Ẓāherī Samarqandī’s Sendbād-nāma (p. 104), Ḥallāj Šīrāzī’s Dīvān-e aṭʿema (pp. 19, 20, 27, 73, 80, 152, 154, 182), Neẓāmī’s Laylī o Majnūn (pp. 248, 278),…

COOKING i. In ancient Iran. ii. In Pahlavi literature. iii. Principles and ingredients of modern Persian cooking. iv. In Afghanistan. i. In Ancient Iran Comprehensive treatment of cooking in the Achaemenid and earlier periods would include not only ingredients and modes of preparation but also the kitchen, cooking equipment and…

COON, CARLETON STEVENS (b. Wakefield, Massa­chusetts, 23 June 1904, d. Gloucester, Massachusetts, 4 June 1981), American anthropologist and educator. Coon was educated at Harvard University, where he took his Ph.D. degree in anthropology in 1928 and also taught anthropology from 1927 to 1948. Between 1925 and 1934 he conducted fieldwork…