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DEŽ, a weekly of news and politics associated with the Tudeh Party (see COMMUNISM ii) that began publication on 6 Ḵordād 1322 Š./27 May 1943 in Tehran and continued with some interruptions until June 1953. Its publisher and director was Nowḏar Āšūrī. From 1950 until the summer of 1953 it…

DEŽĪ NEBEŠT (Mid. Pers. diz ī nibišt “fortress of archives,” lit. “writing”), supposedly one of two repositories (the other being ganj ī šāhīgān, ms.: špykʾn “royal treasury”) in which copies of the Avesta and its exegesis (zand) were deposited for safekeeping. Five somewhat different versions of this legend are recounted in…

DEŽ-E BAHMAN (Fortress of Bahman, Pahl. Wahmandiz), according to legend a fortress in Azerbaijan conquered by the Kayānian king Kay Ḵosrow, son of Sīāvaš and grandson of Kāvūs, king of Iran. According to the Šāh-nāma (ed. Khaleghi, II, pp. 460-67), after Kay Ḵosrow returned from Tūrān to Iran two prominent…

DEŽ-E GONBADĀN (Fortress of Gonbadān), a fortress where the Iranian hero Esfandīār, son of the Kayānian king Goštāsb, was imprisoned. At the instigation of Gorazm (Ṭabarī, I, p. 677: Qorazm) Goštāsb began to mistrust Esfandīār and finally accused him of laying claim to the throne of Iran; he ordered Esfandīār…

DEŽ-E RŪYĪN (or Rūyīn-dež, Brazen fortress), castle belonging to the Turanian king Arjāsb (see ARJĀSP) and conquered by Esfandīār, son of the Kayanid king Goštāsb. It has also been called “brazen city” (al-madīna al-ṣofrīya; Ṯaʿālebī, Ḡorar, p. 522). In Goštāsb’s absence Arjāsb attacked Balḵ, killing Lohrāsb, Goštāsb’s father, and taking…

DEŽ-E  SAFĪD (White fortress), Iranian fortress located near the border with Tūrān and conquered by Sohrāb, son of the Iranian hero Rostam by the Turanian princess Tahmīna. Sohrāb, searching for his father, advanced into Iran and arrived at this fortress, which was guarded by another Iranian hero, Hojīr. Hojīr came…

DEZFUL (< Dez-pol “Fortress bridge”), a town and sub-province (šahrestān) in northern Khuzestan province (Ostān-e Ḵuzestān). This entry is divided into the following three articles: i. Geography. ii. Population. iii. Dezfuli and Shushtari dialects.

DEZFŪL i. Geography The šahrestān is bounded on the north by Lorestān province, on the west by Īlām province, and on the east and south by Īza, Šūštar, and Ahvāz šahrestāns. It covers an area of 7,884 km2 and consists of three districts (baḵš): Markazī (including the rural districts Šamsābād, Šarqī,…

DEZFUL ii. Population, 1956-2011 This article deals with the following population characteristics of Dezful city: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status for 2006 and/or 2011 (different dates for the categories are determined by the availability of census data). Population…

DEZFŪLĪ AND ŠŪŠTARĪ DIALECTS Dezfūlī and Šūštarī are two closely related Persian dialects spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of Dezfūl and Šūštar in Ḵūzestān province. The sedentary Iranian communities of Ḵūzestān, the inhabitants of which speak Lor dialects for the most part, seem to be located in a band along the…

DEZKŪH (or Šāhdez), a medieval mountain fortress situated in central Persia on the summit of Mount Ṣoffa, about 8 km south of Isfahan. No information is available on the construction date of this strategically situated fortress, which guarded the routes to Isfahan, but, like some other ruins in the same…

DHABHAR, BAHMANJI NUSSERWANJI (b. 1869 in Navsari, d. 1952 in Bombay 1952), eminent Parsi scholar of Bhagaria stock. He received his schooling at the Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Madressa and trained at the same time as a Zoroastrian priest. He was initiated ervad (the 1st priestly qualification) and marāteb (the 2nd and…