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DAŠT-e NĀWOR (lit. “plain of the lake”), a depression (average elev. 3,100 m) 60 x 15 km with a brackish lake (nāwor, nāvor, Mong. nor) in the center, located at 33° 41’ N and 67° 46’ E, about 60 km west of Ḡaznī. It is now permanently inhabited by Persian-speaking…

DAŠT-E QALʿA (lit., “plain of the fortress”), small bāzār village on an irrigation canal near the junction of the Kōkča and Āmū Darya (Panj) rivers in the province of Badaḵšān, northeastern Afghanistan, the site of several earlier settlements. It is the major village on the plain of Torḡay Tīppa (Moḥammad-Nāder…

DASTA, the most common term for a ritual procession held in the Islamic lunar month of Moḥarram (q.v.) and the following month of Ṣafar, both periods of mourning for Imami Shiʿites. The procession commemorates the tragic death of Ḥosayn, grandson of the prophet Moḥammad and the third imam of the…

DAŠTAKĪ,AMĪR SAYYED GĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN MANṢŪR b. Ṣadr-al-Dīn Moḥammad Šīrāzī Ḥosaynī (866-948/1462-1541), scholar, philosopher, and motakallem (theologian) of the late Timurid and early Safavid period, and, for a brief interval under Shah Ṭahmāsb (930-84/1524-76), one of two ṣadrs (chief clerical overseers). His family was originally from Shiraz. In the late 16th century…

DAŠTAKĪ, SAYYED AMĪR JAMĀL-AL-DĪN ʿAṬĀ-ALLĀH b. Fażl-Allāh b. ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Ḥosaynī Heravī (d. 912/1506, 917/1511, or 926/1520; Dānešpažūh and Monzawī, pp. 582-83; Baḡdādī, p. 664, citing the anonymous 16th-century chronicle Ḵolāṣat al-afkār, by Mīr Moḥammad-Taqī Kāšānī), a scholar of Hadith in Khorasan in the late Timurid and early Safavid periods. He…

DASTĀN, a term used in two different contexts in Persian music. Melody. Bārbad, the minstrel of the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II Parvēz (591-628), was said to have composed 360 dastāns in order to be able to play a new melody each day of the year (Christensen, Iran Sass., p. 485)….

DĀSTĀN-SARĀʾĪ (storytelling), term used for written and oral genres of fictional narrative. Other terms used for the same genres include dāstān-gūʾī, dāstān-pardāzī, qeṣṣa-gūʾī, afsāna-sarāʾī, and naqqālī. In this article primarily the oral forms of storytelling will be discussed. Oral storytelling is generally considered a part of popular culture, but it…

DAŠTESTĀN, šahrestān (subprovince) on the Persian Gulf coast in Būšehr province, bounded on the north and east by Fārs province, on the south by the šahrestān of Daštī, and on the west by the šahrestāns of Būšehr, Tangestān, and Ganāva. The adminstrative capital is Borāzjān. According to the census of 1365…

DASTGĀH (دستگاه), modal system in Persian music, representing a level of organization at which a certain number of melodic types (gūšas) are regrouped and ordered in relation to a dominant mode (māya). Each dastgāh takes its name from this dominant mode, which is always played in the introductory parts. For example,…

Dastgāh-e Čahārgāh title Dastgāh-e Čahārgāh genre/topic Dastgāh-e Čahārgāh language Persian performer Ẓelli Reżāqoli Mirzā, voice ; Mošir Homāyun Šahrdār, piano instrument Voice with Piano and Orchestra composer   author/poet  Hāfez first line of poem ʿEybe rendān makon ey zāhed-e pākize serešt recorded by   place of recording   date of recording…

Dastgāh-e Māhur title Dastgāh-e Māhur genre/topic Dastgāh-e Māhur, pišdarāmad and darāmad language   performer Manučehr Sahbābi instrument Piano composer Alfred Lemaire, director of music at Dār al-Fonun author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 3:48 source Āvāz et…

DASTGERD (< *dasta-kṛta “made by hand, handiwork”), a term originally designating a royal or seigneurial estate. It is doubtful that it was used in the Achaemenid period, as it is attested only once, in the restored form [dasta]kṛtam (cf. DSe, ll. 42-43; Kent, Old Persian, p. 142). It is widely...