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DEPORTATIONS, forced transfers of population from one region to another. Deportations should be distinguished from other, somewhat similar sanctions that may occur together with them, for example, expropriation and massacre, exile of individuals and their immediate families or adherents, enslavement or military conscription of conquered peoples, and forced sedentarization of…

DERAFŠ (“banner, standard, flag, emblem”; Av. drafša-, Mid. Pers. drafš, equivalent to OInd. drapsá-; see Horn, Etymologie, no. 553; AirWb., col. 771) in ancient Iran. The use of the banner as a religious, royal, or military symbol was common among Indo-Iranians (Wikander, pp. 60-62, 96-97; Kramrisch; Kuiper) and Near Eastern…

DERAFŠ-E KĀVĪĀN, the legendary royal standard of the Sasanian kings. In the Šāh-nāma (ed. Khaleghi-Motlagh, pp. 66-70, vv. 184 ff.) it is recorded that, when the blacksmith Kāva revolted against the tyrant Żaḥḥāk, he draped his leather apron from a wooden spear as a standard. As a result of the…

DERAḴT (Mid. Pers. draxt), tree, shrub. Two other words for “tree” occur in Pahlavi literature: wan (Av. vanā-, Pashto wana, Pers. bon) and dār, also meaning “wood” (Av. dārav-/drav- “tree stem, wood,” Caspian dialects, Kurd., etc., dār “tree”; AirWb., cols. 738-39, 1353; Morgenstierne, p. 87 no. 260); both bon and…

DERAḴT-E ANJIR-E MAʿĀBED (The fig tree of temples, 2000), the last and the highly acclaimed work of fiction by Ahmad Mahmud (Aḥmad Maḥmud, also known as Eʿṭāʾ; 1931-2002), prominent writer on rural and regional themes in modern Persian literature.  A novel in two volumes, Deraḵt-e anjir-e maʿābed recounts the life…

DERĀZ-DAST (having long hands; OPers. *darga-dasta-; cf. Younger Av. darəγō.gava- “with long hands,” AirWb. col. 694), epithet of King Bahman-Ardašīr mentioned in the Persian sources (Mojmal, ed. Bahār, p. 30; Ebn al-Balḵī, p. 52; Tārīḵ-e gozīda, ed. Browne, p. 98), probably translating a Pahlavi form like dērang/d-dast. It is also recorded…

DERHAM B. NAŻR (or Naṣr or Ḥosayn), commander of ʿayyārs or moṭawweʿa, orthodox Sunni vigilantes against the Kharijites in Sīstān during the period immediately preceding the rise of the Saffarid brothers to supreme power there. Derham was chosen by the Sunni forces in the field to succeed the ʿayyār leader…

DEŚANĀ, Khotanese term with two meanings: “showing” (< Skt. deśayati “shows”), that is, “preaching” the law, and “profession” of faith or “confession” of sins (Bailey, 1962, p. 18; cf. Edgerton, s.v.). In the second meaning deśanā also refers to a particular genre of Khotanese religious text (Emmerick, 1992, p. 37)....

DESERT (Pers. bīābān; kavīr; lūt; see below), area of low precipitation that supports little vegetation and lacks surface water. Secondary characteristics typically include poor soils, salinity, high winds, and extreme temperatures, accompanied by high rates of erosion and sand accumulation. Global wind patterns maintain these conditions in zones that encircle…

DESMAISONS, JEAN-JACQUES-PIERRE (Petr Ivanovich Demezon; b. Chambéry, in the kingdom of Sardinia, 1807, d. Paris, ** 1873), diplomat and compiler of an important Persian-French dictionary. Desmaisons was the son of a physician; he attended the Collège Royal in Chambéry, then went to St. Petersburg to study oriental languages with Henry…

DEUTSCHESARCHÄOLOGISCHES INSTITUT (D.A.I.), research institution administered by the German foreign ministry, with a number of branches, including the Abteilung Teheran in Persia. The central headquarters and presidential office are located in Berlin, where normally a general meeting of the board of directors of the entire institute is held once a…

DEVECSERI, Gábor (b. Budapest, 27 February 1917; d. Budapest, 31 July 1971), Hungarian poet, scholar, and translator.  He was educated in Budapest, matriculated in the Protestant Gymnasium.  After completing his secondary education in 1934, he worked as a private clerk.  A year later he enrolled at the Péter Pázmány University…