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DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES (dar o sardar), in Persian architecture major foci of decoration, varying in size and elaboration with the function and importance of the building and the location of the entrance in relation to the total composition. i. From the medieval through the Safavid periods. ii. In the…

DŌRĪ (Pashto Ḍôrəy; Aslanov, p. 432), river in southern Afghanistan, the main tributary of the Arḡandāb. It originates about 2,500 m above sea level in the Tōba highlands of northern Baluchistan, about 50 km east of the Afghan boundary (for details, see Wylie; summarized in Hughes-Buller, p. 14; Gazetteer of…

DORN, JOHANNES ALBRECHT BERNHARD (Boris Andreevich; b. Scheierfeld, Saxe-Coburg, Germany, 29 April 1805, d. St. Petersburg, 19 May 1881; Figure 1), pioneer in many areas of Iranian studies in Russia. Dorn studied philology and theology at the universities of Halle and Leipzig, learning Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Turkish, Pashto, Sanskrit,…

DORRĀNĪ (sg. Dorrānay), probably the most numerous Pashtun tribal confederation, from which all Afghan dynasties since 1160/1747 have come. It has always played a leading role in modern Afghan politics (Yusufzai; see AFGHANISTAN x). Tribal composition. The Dorrānī confederation is a political grouping of ten Pashtun tribes of various sizes,…

ḎORRAT, maize or (Indian) corn, Zea mays L. (fam. Gramineae), with many varieties and hybrids (see Ṭabāṭabāʾī, pp. 140-62). Terminology. This important cereal, of American origin, was introduced into India in about 1500 by the Portuguese, and from there it reached southern Persia in the Safavid period (907-1145/1501-1732), probably through…

DORRAT AL-NAJAF (Pearl of Najaf) ,monthly religious journal published in Persian at Najaf in southern Iraq at the end of the first decade of the 20th century. It was preceded by the monthly al-Ḡarī, which began publication on 18 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1327/31 December 1909; the second issue, dated 18 Ṣafar 1328/29…

DORRAT-AL-MAʿĀLĪ, FAṬEMA (b. Tehran, 1295/1873, d. Tehran, Šahrīvar 1344=1303 Š./1924), pioneer in female education in Persia. Her father, Sayyed ʿAlī Ḥakīm Šams-al-Maʿālī, was a physician in the service of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah, but, as was typical of the period, no information on her mother was recorded. Dorrat al-Maʿālī was educated at…

DORŪD, a town in Lorestān province, situated at the foot of Oštorānkūh, at an altitude of 1,460 m (33° 28’ N, 49° 3’ E), on the route from Tehran to Ḵorramābād at the confluence of the rivers Tīra and Mārbara. The town enjoys temperate summers and fairly cold winters. It…

DŌŠĪ, small town and district on the northern slope of the central Hindu Kush in Afghanistan. The town is situated at the junction of the Sorḵāb and Andarāb, the valleys of which are traversed by two old caravan tracks linking Kabul with Qaṭaḡan. The one, along the Sorḵāb via Bāmīān and…

DOŠMANZĪĀRĪ, name of two Lor tribes in southern Persia, the Došmanzīārī-e Mamasanī and the Došmanzīārī-e Kūhgīlūya. The Došmanzīārī-e Mamasanī were one of the four principal components of the Mamasanī tribal confederation. They were greatly weakened in the power struggle following the execution of their chief, Moḥammad-Reżā Khan, in 1256/1840 (de…