Explore Iranica

DATAPHERNES (Gk. Dataphérnēs < Ir. *Dāta-farnah- "to whom farnah- [i.e. grace and glory] is given,” also reflected in Babylonian Da-da-pir-na-ʾ, Da-da-a-pa-ar-na-ʾ and El. Da-tap-par-na, Da-ud-da-pa-ir-na and variants), name of an Iranian (perhaps Bactrian) officer in the entourage of Bessos, murderer of Darius III (336-30 B.C.E.). Although he was one of...

DATE PALM (deraḵt-e ḵormā, naḵl; Phoenix dactylifera L., fam. Palmaceae), dioecious tree of great economic and cultural importance in Persia and the Middle East. It is indigenous to the geobotanical “Sahara-Sind region,” a desert or semidesert belt extending from the Indus valley to North Africa (Gauba, 1951, p. 15; for…

DATES AND DATING in Old and Middle Iranian. The only dating formulas preserved in an Old Iranian language are those found in Old Persian in the Bīsotūn inscriptions of Darius I. They have a ponderous air, suggesting a chronicle addressed to posterity, rather than a system meant for everyday use….

DATIS (Gk. Dâtis), Iranian personal name, reflecting Old Iranian *Dātiya- (cf. El. Da-ti-ya; see below), rather than *Dāti-, as previously assumed (cf. Old Pers. final -iya-, reflected in Gk. -is, as in Bṛdiya-/ Smérdis). The name is formed with the hypocoristic suffix -iya- attached to the well-attested but ambiguous stem…

DAULIER DESLANDES, ANDRÉ (b. Montoire-sur-le-Loir, 1621, d. Paris, 23 October 1715), author of Les Beautez de la Perse …, a brief but valuable description of Safavid Persia in the years 1075-76/1664-65. No information on his early years has yet come to light, but in 1663 he joined the French jeweler…

DAURISES (Gk. Daurísēs, apparently reflecting the same Old Persian original as El. Da-a-ú/hu-ri-sa/ša, connected with Younger Av. daiŋ́hāuruuaēsa- “wandering up and down the country”; cf. Hinz, p. 80), name of a Persian general during the Ionian revolt, a son-in-law of Darius I (522-486 B.C.E.). In 497 B.C.E., together with other…

DAVĀL-PĀ(Y), or dovāl-pā (colloq. dūāl-pā;Kurdish dolpā; Kermānī dohol-pā), an imaginary evil anthropoid creature characterized by flexible legs (pā) resembling leather straps (da/ovāl < Pahl. dawāl “hide, leather”), which he uses as tentacles to grip and enslave human beings, who then have to carry him on their shoulders or backs and...

DAVĀN (local pronunciation do:ʾu:), village located 12 km northeast of Kāzerūn in Fārs; a distinctive dialect is spoken there. i. The village. ii. The Davānī dialect.   i. THE VILLAGE Davān is located at 29° 23′ N, 51° 55′ E, in a narrow valley at the foot of Mount Davān…

DAVĀNĪ, JALĀL-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD b. Asʿad Kāzerūnī Ṣeddīqī (b. Davān, q.v., near Kāzerūn in Fārs, 830/1426-27, d. 908/1502), often referred to as ʿAllāma Davānī, leading theologian, philosopher, jurist, and poet of late 15th-century Persia. He began his studies with his father, who had been a student of Mīr Sayyed Šarīf-ʿAlī b….

DĀVAR, ʿALĪ-AKBAR (b. Tehran, 1302/1885, d. Tehran, 21 Bahman 1315 Š./10 February 1937), journalist, politician, statesman, and founder of the modern Persian judicial system, as well as of several state enterprises in the time of Reżā Shah (1304-20 Š/1925-41). He was the son of Kalb-ʿAlī Khan Ḵāzen Ḵalwat, a government…

DĀVARĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ, Mīrzā Moḥammad (b. Shiraz 1238/1822-23, d. Shiraz, 1283/1866), poet, calligrapher, and painter of some renown in Qajar Persia and a contemporary of Moḥammad Shah (1250-64/1834-48) and Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1313/1848-96). He was the third son of the famous poet and calligrapher Mīrzā Moḥammad-Ṣafī Weṣāl, with whom he studied Arabic…

DAVĀZDAH ROḴ (Twelve combats), designation of a relatively long episode in the Šāh-nāma (2,500 verses; Moscow, V, pp. 86-234), in which a battle takes place on the borders of Tūrān between Iranians under the command of Gūdarz and Turanians under the command of Pīrān. The battle begins when Hūmān, a…