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EXCAVATIONS ii. In Afghanistan Archeological investigation, both excavation and recording of sites and monuments, began in Afghanistan in the early 19th century. Most such work was by travelers and British Indian army officers and often consisted of little more than passing observations. These reports did, however, awaken international scholarly interest…

EXCAVATIONS iii. In Central Asia History of Excavations (Figure 1) Archeological and architectural monuments of Central Asia are mentioned in reports from the 18th and early 19th centuries by European and Russian travelers, merchants, and diplomats. The Russian orientalist P. I. Lerkh, who accompanied a minor diplomatic mission, even undertook…

EXCAVATIONS iv. In Chinese Turkestan In contemporary geographic terminology, Chinese Turkestan refers to Xinjiang (Sinkiang), the Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. In older scholarly works, however, other names have often been applied to this part of Central Asia: Serindia (English and French); Ost-Turkestan, Chinesische Ost-Turkestan, Mittelasien…

EXEGESIS (Ar. tafsīr), commentary on or interpretation of sacred texts.i. In Zoroastrianismii. In Shiʿismiii. In Persianiv. In Sufism. See SUPPLEMENT.v. In Ismaʿili Shiʿism. See TAʾWĪL (supplement).vi. In Aḵbārī and Post-Safavid Esoteric Shiʿismvii. In Bahaism viii. Nishapuri School of Quranic Exegesis.

EXEGESIS i. In Zoroastrianism Zoroastrian exegesis consists basically of the interpretation of the Avesta (q.v.). However, the closest equivalent Iranian concept, zand, generally includes Pahlavi texts which were believed to derive from commentaries upon Avestan scripture, but whose extant form contains no Avestan passages. Zoroastrian exegesis differs from similar phenomena…

EXEGESIS ii. In Shiʿism Shiʿite exegetes, perhaps even more than their Sunni counterparts, support their distinctive views by reference to Koranic proof-texts. A major distinction is that the Shiʿite exegetes attempt to find in the Koran explicit references to such themes as the Imams’ supernatural and mystical qualities, the Imams’…

EXEGESIS iii. In Persian The writing of commentaries on the Koran in Persian seems to have begun during the second half of the 4th/10th century. The principal objective of such tafsīrs was ostensibly to give Persian speakers who were not proficient in Arabic direct access to the exegesis of the…

EXEGESIS vi. In Aḵbārī and Post-Safavid Esoteric Shiʿism Aḵbārī exegesis of the Koran, the style and content of which are much older than the Safavid period, became during that time a common method of interpreting Islamic scripture. Pre-Safavid or classical works of Aḵbārī exegesis were not explicitly esoteric in nature…

EXEGESIS vii. In Bahaism The importance of Koranic exegesis (tafsīr) and interpretation (taʾwīl)—a somewhat arbitrary distinction—for the Bābī and Bahai religions (considered here together) may be gathered from the fact that the inception of the former is dated to the commencement of a work of scriptural interpretation, namely the Bāb’s…

EXEGESIS viii. Nishapuri School of Quranic Exegesis A school of Quranic exegesis was established by three scholars from Nishapur in the 11th century which transformed the genre of tafsir and Quranic sciences and came to be known as the Nishapuri School. The influence of these three consecutive generations of scholars,…

EXILARCH (Hebrew resh galuta), the leading authority in the Jewish community in Babylonia. The Babylonian Talmud is the major source of information on the office up to the 6th century, supplemented by contemporary Palestinian sources, later medieval chronicles, and 9th-century Pahlavi texts (see, e.g., Markwart, Provincial Capitals, p. 19). In…

EY IRĀN, EY MARZ-E POR GOHAR (O Iran, O bejeweled land), the title of an ardently patriotic hymn of praise to the land of Iran. Its lyrics were written by Ḥosayn Gol-golāb (q.v.) and were set to music by Ruḥ-Allāh Ḵāleqi (q.v.). First performed in 1944, its stirring music and…