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DAR-E MEHR, a Zoroastrian term first recorded in the Persian Rivāyats and Parsi Gujarati writings. Its use in the former is rare, with a variant dar be-mehr, unknown among the Parsis, occurring once. This variant form is regarded by the Irani Zoroastrians as belonging to their own special dialect (which…

DĀRĀ, the name of a Parthian city and of a Byzan­tine garrison town of the Sasanian period. Parthian Dārā. This Parthian town, located in the small province Apavarktikēnē in Arsacid Parthia and said to have been founded by Arsaces I (r. ca. 247-17 b.c.e.; Justin 41.5.2-4; cf. Isidore of Charax…

DĀRĀŠOKŌH (b. near Ajmer, 19 Ṣafar 1024/20 March 1615, d. Delhi, 22 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1069/12 August 1659), first son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahān (r. 1037-67/1627-57) and his wife Momtāz Maḥall, religious thinker, mystic, poet, and author of a number of works in Persian. Little is known about his education;…

DĀRĀ(B) (< *Dārāw < Dāryāw < OPers. Dārayavau-; cf. Pahlavi Dāy), the name of two kings of the legendary Kayanid dynasty. i. Dārā(b) I. ii. Dārā(b) II.   i. DĀRĀ(B) I Dārā(b) I was the son of the Kayanid Bahman Ardašīr. According to most of the sources, his mother was...

DĀRĀB. i. Modern city and šahrestān. ii. History and archeology. iii. Rock reliefs.   i. MODERN CITY AND ŠAHRESTĀN The name Dārāb refers both to a šahrestān (subprovince) of Fārs province and to the chief city of that šahrestān. The subprovince is bound on the north by the šahrestāns of…

DĀRĀB-NĀMA, prose romance of the 12th century, by Abū Ṭāher Moḥammad b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Mūsā Ṭārsūsī (or Ṭarṭūsī), in which the adventures of the legendary Kayanid king Dārāb, son of Bahman (also called Ardašīr) and Homāy, variously identified as the daughter of king Sām Čāraš of Egypt or…

DĀRĀBĪ, SAYYED JAʿFAR b. Abī Esḥāq Mūsawī Borūjerdī Kašfī (b. Eṣṭahbānāt in Fārs, 1189/1775, d. Borūjerd 1267/1851), religious scholar, nephew of the Aḵbārī Yūsuf b. Aḥmad Baḥrānī and father of Sayyed Yaḥyā Waḥīd Dārābī. His position on the dispute between Aḵbarīs (see AḴBARĪYA) and Oṣūlīs is unclear. Like his contemporaries…

DĀRĀBĪ, SAYYED YAḤYĀ (b. Yazd, ca. 1226/1811, d. Neyrīz, 1266/1850), Babi leader usually known as Waḥīd (unique), a title given him by the Bāb. The eldest son of Sayyed Jaʿfar Kašfī Eṣṭah-bānātī, he received a Muslim religious education and, like his father, was associated with the Qajar court (see DĀRĀBĪ,…

DARABPAHLAN, DASTUR, Zoroastrian priest and author (b. Navsari, Gujarat, 1668, d. Navsari, 1 September 1734), eldest son of Pahlan Fredoon, who was accorded the title “dastur” (high priest) and the privilege of occupying the second chair in the Zoroastrian assembly of the small port of Navsari in 1670 or perhaps…

DARĀMAD (lit., “introduction”), an episode in the course of a musical performance, the nature and length of which vary with the material introduced. The darāmad of a modal system (dastgāh) is thus more developed than that of one of its sections (gūšas). Only when the darāmad is long enough to…