Explore Iranica

ECKMANN, János (b. Keszthely, Hungary, 21 August 1905; d. Santa Monica, California, 22 November 1971), a Hungarian Professor of Chaghatay. After elementary and high school he studied Hungarian, German, Turkic, and Semitic linguistics and literature at the universities of Budapest and Vienna.  In 1930 he received his teacher’s certificate and taught…

ECOLOGY, the study of organisms, both flora and fauna, in relation to their environments. The biosphere generally encompasses the thin outer shell of the earth, which includes soil and surface rocks, bodies of water, the lower atmosphere, and the life forms that inhabit these zones. The biosphere of Persia is…

ECONOMY i. Economic geography. ii. In the Pre-Achaemenid period. iii. In the Achaemenid period. iv. In the Sasanian period. v. From the Arab conquest to the end of the Il-khanids vi. In the Timurid period. vii. From the Safavids through the Zands. viii. In the Qajar period ix. In the…

ECONOMY i. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY The high plateau and its external relations. The heartland of the Iranian world, encompassing both Persia and Afghanistan, is an arid high plateau, from which communication with the outside world is extraordinarily difficult. In the north there is an almost continuous barrier running from the Caucasus…

ECONOMY ii. IN THE PRE-ACHAEMENID PERIOD Pre-Median Persia was a crucial economic component of ancient southwest Asia from the earliest times (Voigt and Dyson; Dyson, 1987; Voigt, 1987; E. Henrickson, 1989). Throughout its prehistory and early history, interregional diversity of economic scale and complexity characterized Persia. Gross topography, climate, ecology,…

ECONOMY iii. IN THE ACHAEMENID PERIOD The Achaemenid empire, extending from the Indus river to the Aegean sea, comprised such economically developed countries as Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Elam, and Asia Minor, lands which had their long traditions of social institutions, as well as Sakai, Massagetai, Lycians, Libyans, Nubians and…

ECONOMY iv. IN THE SASANIAN PERIOD The Sasanians, who inherited the economic conditions left by the Parthians, were quick to forge an economic state so powerful and distinctive that its fame spread well beyond their political frontiers and their period. Although it is impossible in this brief article to take…

ECONOMY v. FROM THE ARAB CONQUEST TO THE END OF THE IL-KHANIDS (part 1) In the early Islamic period. The economic order in Islamic Persia was in theory, if not always in practice, derived from Islamic norms. Society was conceived of essentially as a political and moral entity, and extra-economic…

ECONOMY v. FROM THE ARAB CONQUEST TO THE END OF THE IL-KHANIDS (part 2) The political breakdown of the caliphate in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries, which has been briefly touched upon above, although disastrous for the finances of the state and for agriculture in ʿErāq-e ʿArab and, perhaps, also…

ECONOMY v. FROM THE ARAB CONQUEST TO THE END OF THE IL-KHANIDS (part 3) As the needs of the state grew, there was a constant shortage of specie to meet its expenses. As a result of the devastation and demographic decline brought about by the invasions, there was less land…

ECONOMY vi. IN THE TIMURID PERIOD The Timurid invasions against the Kartid rulers of Khorasan, which began in 783/1381, caused socioeconomic dislocation and unprecedented wholesale destruction and pillaging of towns, as well as brutal massacres of their populations (or, in more fortunate cases, the extraction of ransom money, large-scale confiscations,…

ECONOMY vii. FROM THE SAFAVIDS THROUGH THE ZANDS The first Safavid king, Esmāʿīl I (907-30/1501-24), initiated a process of political and religious change in Persia that profoundly affected the economic structure. During the three centuries 1500-1800 the technology, organization, and ethnography of Persian agriculture, animal husbandry, manufacturing, and accounting underwent…

ECONOMY viii. IN THE QAJAR PERIOD At the outset of the Qajar dynasty, the Persian economy displayed the characteristics of a traditional economy disintegrating under the stress of political anarchy. Several decades of external invasions, internal strife, and endemic lawlessness, exacerbated by the decline of transcontinental trade routes, had brought…

ECONOMY ix. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD From Reżā Shah’s rise to power to his abdication (1299-1340 Š./1921-41). Upon seizing power, Reżā Shah’s priority was to establish the authority of the state over the whole country and to build a strong central bureaucracy. He formed a national army, introduced conscription, and…

ECONOMY x. UNDER THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC Introduction. The 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Persia has had a profound impact on the economy of the country. Since 1979 there have been marked changes in the economic policies, institutions, and structure of the country, in addition to…