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COTTON iii. In Afghanistan Two Iranian words, paḵta (< Tajik) and pomba (Pers. panba < Pahl. pambag), are currently used in Afghani­stan to designate raw cotton. Most people use them fairly indiscriminately, but specialists tend to confine the former to unginned, or seed, cotton and the latter to ginned, or...

COUP D’ETAT OF 1299/1921, the military coup that eventually led to the founding of the Pahlavi dynasty. The coup was directed not at the Qajar monarchy as such but at the cabinet of Sepahdār-e Aʿẓam Fatḥ-Allāh-e Akbar and the oligarchy of land­owners and bureaucratic officials that controlled the regime. It…

COUP D’ETAT OF 1332 Š./1953. The appointment of Moḥammad Moṣaddeq (q.v.) as prime minis­ter of Persia on 9 Ordībehešt 1330 Š./29 April 1951 and the nationalization two days later of Persia’s British-owned oil industry initiated a period of tense confrontation between the Persian and British govern­ments. It lasted until the…

COURTS AND COURTIERS i. In the Median and Achaemenid periods. ii. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods. iii. In the Islamic period to the Mongol conquest. iv. Under the Mongols. v. Under the Timurid and Turkman dynasties. vi. In the Safavid period. vii. In the Qajar period. viii. In the…

COURTS AND COURTIERS i. In the Median and Achaemenid periods Available information on the Median and Achae­menid imperial courts is very limited and not entirely reliable. From Herodotus’ report (1.114) of the child Cyrus’ playing at being king it seems that the Median court included bodyguards, messengers, the “king’s eye”…

COURTS AND COURTIERS ii. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods In the absence of records, a full picture of court life under the Parthians and Sasanians cannot be pieced together. The only available information is derived from a small number of inscriptions; from secondary contemporary sources in Greek, Latin, Armenian,…

COURTS AND COURTIERS iii. In the Islamic period to the Mongol conquest In Persia the organization of courts (Pers. bār, bādrgāh, dargāh, darbār; in Arabic, there exists no more precise designation than majles, lit. “session”), including the formation of a circle of courtiers in the early centuries after the Islamic…

COURTS AND COURTIERS iv. Under the Mongols During the early stages of the Mongol presence Persia was ruled, on behalf of the great khan (qaḡan, qaʾan/qāʾān) in Mongolia, by military governors based in Azerbaijan and in Khorasan, but, with the coming of Hülegü (Hūlāgū) in 654/1256 and the establishment of…

COURTS AND COURTIERS v. Under the Timurid and Turkman dynasties One of the causes of Timur’s break, in 771/1370, with the Chaghatayid prince Amir Ḥosayn (see chaghatayid dynasty), who ruled northern Afghani­stan and had been his ally in his early campaigns against the eastern Chaghatayid Tuḡluq (Tūḡlūq) Tīmūr, may have…

COURTS AND COURTIERS vi. In the Safavid period The organization of the court and its administration. Some ninety years ago W. W. Barthold made his classic statement on the subject of the political orga­nization of the eastern Muslim world: “Throughout the whole system of the Eastern Muslim political organization there…

COURTS AND COURTIERS vii. In the Qajar period    The court (darbār, darbār-e aʿẓam, dar(b)-e ḵāna) in the Qajar period was essentially organized on the ancient Perso-Turkish model inherited from the Safavid and Zand courts (see vi, above) but with modifications in practice and function largely designed to accommo­date the…

COURTS AND COURTIERS viii. In the reign of Reżā Shah Pahlavī When Reżā Shah (r. 1304-20 Š./1925-1941) acceded to the throne he retained a number of lower officials from the royal court of the Qajars (see vii, above), specifically those who had not been vocal in support of republicanism. They…

COURTS AND COURTIERS x. Court poetry Until modern times there were strong incentives to patronize poets and other writers wherever the seat of power was renowned as a center of culture. Such incentives arose mainly from the service of literature to a reigning dynasty, particularly in glorifying the ruler’s status…