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DEHLORĀN (Deh Lorān), the name of a šahrestān (subprovince) in Īlām province in southwestern Persia, and of the main town. The šahrestān, which is located on the Iraqi border,comprises four districts (Ḥūma, Ābdānān, Zarrīnābād, and Mūsīān) inhabited mainly by the Lor tribes of Jāʾīrvand, Maḥmūdvand, Bāpīrvand, and Dūst-ʿAlīvand. The Dehlorān…

DEHQĀN, arabicized form of Syriac dhgnʾ (Margoliouth, p. 84a), borrowed from Pahlavi dehgān (older form dahīgān). The original meaning was “pertaining to deh”(< OPers. dahyu), the latter term not in the later sense of “village,” but in the original sense of “land.” i. In the Sasanian period. ii. In the...

DEIOCES (Gk. Dēïókēs), name of a Median king; this Greek form, like Assyrian Da-a-a-uk-ku (i.e., Daiukku) and Elamite Da-a-(hi-)(ú-)uk-ka, Da-a-ya-u(k)-ka, and so on, reflects Iranian *Dahyu-ka-, a hypocoristic based on dahyu- “land” (cf. Schmitt). According to the detailed account of Herodotus (1.96-101), Deioces, son of Phraortes (Ir. *Fravartiš; 1.96.1), father…

DEIPNOSOPHISTAÍ (Banquet of the Sophists), a miscellany in the form of dialogues ostensibly conducted at table, including approximately one hundred passages pertaining to Persia; it is the only extant work of Athenaeus (see ATHENAIOS OF NAUCRATIS), an Egyptian-born author who lived in Rome in the early 3rd century C.E. Charles…

ḎEKR (lit., “remembrance”), the act of reminding oneself of God. i. In Sufism. ii. In the Babi and Bahai religions.   i. IN SUFISM Among Sufis ḏekr is the most common prayer practice. The term and its derivatives occur in about 250 koranic verses. The Koran itself (e.g., 7:63, 38:1)…

DELĀRESTĀQ (also Delārostāq, Dīlārostāq), dehestān (administrative district) in the šahrestān of Āmol (Lārījān baḵš), on the northeastern slope of Mount Damāvand in Māzandarān (Razmārā, Farhang III, p. 122). It is a small, isolated region, located between Lārījān and Nūr and thus forming part of the conglomeration of mountain valleys in the…

DELBARJĪN, urban site 40 km northwest of Balḵ, on the northern limit of an oasis irrigated by the Balḵāb, near a defensive wall built during the Greek period (ca 329-130 B.C.E.) to protect the oasis. It was probably founded in the 5th century B.C.E. and flourished up to about the…

DELDĀR, YŪNES MELA RAʾŪF (b. in the sanjaq of Ḵoy in the Ottoman empire, 20 February 1918; d. Erbīl, Iraq, 12 October 1948), Kurdish poet and humanist. While a student of law in Baghdad he joined the Hiwā (Hope) party, the first legally recognized Kurdish organization to work for the…

DELDĀR-ʿALĪ b. Moḥammad-Moʿīn NAṢĪRĀ-BĀDĪ, Sayyed Ḡofrān-maʾāb (b. Naṣīrābād near Lucknow, 1166/1753, d. Lucknow ca. 1235/1820), Shiʿite cleric of northern India who helped to establish the Shiʿite form of Friday prayers and propagated the rationalist Oṣūlī school of jurisprudence in the Avadh region. In Deldār-ʿAlī’s native village, Naṣīrābād in the district of…

DÉLÉGATIONS ARCHÉOLOGIQUES FRANÇAISES, bodies established by the French government to conduct archeological investigations in Persia and Afghanistan respectively. i. Délégation Archéologique Française en Iran. ii. Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan.   i. DÉLÉGATION ARCHÉOLOGIQUE FRANÇAISE EN IRAN Archeological research in Persia began with the explorations of the British geologist W….

DELHI SULTANATE, Muslim kingdom established in northern India by Central Asian Turkish warlords at the turn of the 13th century and continuing in an increasingly persianized milieu until its conquest by Bābor in 932/1526. i. Political and cultural history. ii. Architecture.   i. POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY Although the influence of…

DELĪKĀNLŪ, tribe of the Ḵalḵāl region in eastern Persian Azerbaijan. In spite of its Turkish name (deli “young, wild, frolicsome”; Doerfer, Elemente II, pp. 660-62), the tribe is apparently of Kurdish origin, like its neighbors the Šaṭrānlū and Qolūqjānlū tribes; Moḥammad Mardūḵ includes it in his list of Kurdish tribes…