Explore Iranica

D’YAKONOV, MIKHAIL MIKHAĬLOVICH (b. St. Petersburg, 26 June 1907, d. Moscow, 8 June 1954), Russian scholar of Iranian studies. The son of an economist, he spent his youth in Norway and in 1924-26 studied with Georg Morgenstierne at the University of Oslo, specializing in Iranian studies. He continued his studies,…

D ENTRIES: CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS   online entry caption text DĀ O DOḴTAR  Figure 25a. Facade of Dā o Doḵtar. After Ghirshman, 1951.  DĀ O DOḴTAR  Figure 25b. Plan of Dā o Doḵtar. After Herzfeld, 1941. DĀ O DOḴTAR  Figure 26. Elevation of columns and details of the facade of…

EAGLES (Ar. and Pers. ʿoqāb; also obsolete Pers. dāl < Mid. Pers. dālman; also obsolete Pers. and Mid. Pers. āloh), large, diurnal, raptorial birds of the family Accipitridae in several genera (45-90 cm long, wingspan 110-250 cm). i. Species in Persia and Afghanistan. ii. The eagle in Persian literature.  ...

EARTHQUAKES. Persia and Afghanistan lie on the great alpine belt that extends from the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean through the Indonesian archipelago and forms the world’s longest collision boundary, between the Eurasian plate in the north and several former Gondwanan blocks in the south, including the so-called “Iranian plates”…

EAST AFRICA: Persian relations with the lands of the East African coast, particularly Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. i. Economic, political, and cultural relations through 1900. ii. Persian loanwords in Swahili. iii. Baluchi and Parsi communities. iv. Bahai communities. i. ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL RELATIONS THROUGH 1900 From early times monsoon…

EAST AND WEST, an English language quarterly published since 1950 by IsMEO (Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente [Italian Institute for Middle and Far East]) and now by the IsIAO (Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente [Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient]). To date (2003) 52 volumes…

EAST INDIA COMPANY (THE BRITISH), a trading company incorporated on 31 December 1600 for fifteen years with the primary purpose of exporting the staple production of English woolen cloths and importing the products of the East Indies. i. The Safavid period. ii. The Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar periods. i. THE…

EAST INDIA COMPANY (THE FRENCH), a company established in 1664 to conduct all French commercial operations with the Orient. Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, had been aware of the great profits earned by the Dutch and English merchants in importing and selling Asian goods to the French (Kaepplin, p. 3)….

EAST SYRIAN MONASTERIES IN SASANIAN IRAN. Traces of monasteries in Sasanian Iran can be found in the sources as early as the 4th century. The first foundations in Babylonia and the Tigris valley are traditionally attributed to (1) Mār Māri, one of the seventy disciples of Christ, who may have built…

EASTERN IRANIAN LANGUAGES, term used to refer to a group of Iranian languages most of which are or were spoken in lands to the east of the present state of Persia. In terms of both historical and typological linguistics, the distinction between Western and Eastern Iranian is generally regarded as…

EASTWICK, EDWARD BACKHOUSE (b. Warfield, Berkshire, 13 March 1814; d. Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 16 July 1883), Orientalist and diplomat, best known for his translations from Persian and Indian languages. Eastwick was born to a family with a long history of service in the British East India Company. He was…

Ebādī Aḥmad title Ebādī Aḥmad genre/topic Dastgāh-e Mahur language   performer Ebādī Aḥmad instrument Setār composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 4:17 source The Improvisations of Ostād Ahmad Ebādi, 2. Mahoor Institute of Culture and…