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DARARIĀN, Vigen, (b. Hamadan, 1308 Š./1929; d.Los Angeles, 1382 Š./2003) renowned pop singer and performer on the guitar. Vigen possessed a very tender (exquisite, silky) and pleasant voice, and during his long artistic career of more than half a century, he performed some 600 songs, many of which became lasting…

DARB-E EMĀM, large shrine complex in the old Sonbolestān quarter of Isfahan (number 217 in the official register of Persian national monuments), centered on a burial chamber identified in an 18th-century inscription (see below) as that of Ebrāhīm Baṭḥā (or Ṭabāṭabāʾī?), a descendant of one Ḥasan Moṯannā, and Zayn-al- ʿAbedīn,…

DARBAND (دربند, Ar. Bāb al-Abwāb), ancient city in Dāḡestān on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, located at 42° 3’ N and 48° 18’ E at the entrance to the narrow pass (3-3.5 km wide) between the Caucasus foothills and the sea (Figure 1). Name. The ancient city must have…

DARBAND EPIGRAPHY Along the walls of Darband (دربند), during the long history of the city, from the Sasanian period through medieval Islamic times, epigraphic remains have been left by those who lived and worked there. The following articles discuss some of these remains.   i. Middle Persian Inscriptions ii. Dar-e…

DARBAND EPIGRAPHY i. MIDDLE PERSIAN INSCRIPTIONS Pahlavi inscriptions of the mid-6th century CE are engraved on the defensive walls of the city of Darband. The corpus includes 32 inscriptions cut on the northern city wall (22 inscriptions: nos. 1-13, 23-31), Narin-kala citadel (9 inscriptions: nos. 14-22), and on the Kejerli-kala…

DARBAND EPIGRAPHY ii. DAR-E QIĀMAT SHRINE Dar-e Qiāmat (Darvāza-ye Qiāmat) was a medieval Muslim cultic site, now forgotten and non-functioning, in Darband.  In the 18th-19th centuries, this shrine was known also as Arab. Bāb al-Qiyāma and Turk. Qiyāmat-kapı (in translation “Gate of the Day of Judgement” or the “Gate of…

DARBAND QUARTER (دربند) of Tehran, formerly a village in the summer resort (yeylāq) of Šamīrān, situated at an elevation of 1,700 m on the extreme northern edge of the capital, where the Alborz foothills begin. A stream of the same name flows through it, and in July 1987 it flooded, destroying the…

DARBANDĪ, MULLA ĀQĀ b. ʿĀbed b. Ramażān, commonly known as Fāżel Darbandī (d. Tehran, 1286/1869-70), Shiʿite scholar and preacher of the Qajar period, renowned for his disputatious and irascible character. His name suggests an origin in the city of Darband or its environs, but the place and year of his…

DARBĀR-E AʿẒAM (lit., “the great court”), a council of ministers established in October 1872 asone of several experiments undertaken in the reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1313/1848-96) to reorganize and rationalize the Persian administration on the model of Western cabinet government. It was composed of the ṣadr-e aʿẓam (grand vizier) and…

DĀRČĪNĪ (i.e., dār-e čīnī, lit., “Chinese tree/wood,” < Mid. Pers. *dār ī čēnīg; cf. Arm. lw. daričenik; Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, p. 137; Ar. dārṣīnī), or commonly dārčīn, the dried aromatic (inner) bark of many plants of the genus Cinnamomum (fam. Lauraceae) found in eastern, southeastern, and southern Asia (for a...

DARD, ḴᵛĀJA MĪR (b. Delhi, 19 Ḏu’l-Qaʿda 1133/13 September 1721; d. Delhi, 29 Ṣafar 1199/11 January 1785), poet and author of prose works on mystical theology. Dard’s father, Nāṣer-Moḥammad ʿAndalīb, was a retired Mughal officer, scion of a family of sayyeds (claiming descent from the Prophet Moḥammad) from Bukhara, descended…

DARDESTĀN, the region where Dardic languages are spoken. i. Geography. ii. Languages. i. GEOGRAPHY The term Dardestān once described the extreme northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, extending from Kashmir to Kabul (Emeneau). It is in this region that the Indic languages begin to merge with Southwestern Iranian Darī or Northeastern…