Explore Iranica

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, administration and ministry. Under the Safavids (1501-1736) there was no special bureaucratic institution designated to deal with foreign affairs. Relations with foreign powers were the domain of the shah and the grand vizier as far as the decision-making process was concerned. In cases which required the use of…

FORESTS AND FORESTRY i. Forests and Forestry in Persia. ii. Forests and Forestry in Afghanistan. See Afghanistan xiii.

FORESTS AND FORESTRY i. IN PERSIA Less than 2 percent of Persia is covered by forests, while another 8 to 9 percent may be regarded as depleted former forest areas. Thus, altogether 150-160,000 km² are, or have been, densely forested areas (FIGURE 1). From a botanical and ecological perspective, Persia’s…

FORGERIES of art objects and manuscripts. i. Introduction. ii. Of Pre-Islamic Art Objects. iii. Of Islamic Art. iv. Of Manuscripts.  

FORGERIES of art objects and manuscripts. i. INTRODUCTION Forgeries have had a long and varied history, occurring in such diverse fields as genealogies, official documents and letters, title deeds, false literary attributions, and manuscripts and paintings. Fabricated genealogies. Early in the Islamic era, Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (see BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN) described…

FORGERIES of art objects and manuscripts. ii. OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARTIFACTS There are essentially two kinds of forgeries that affect the study of ancient Iranian artifacts: the modern creation of an object that is falsely presented as an ancient artifact, and the assertion that an unexcavated object comes from a specifically…

FORGERIES iii. OF ISLAMIC ART Medieval Arabic and Persian literature contain numerous anecdotes about the forging of manuscripts, but it was only in the late 19th century that forging Persian works of Islamic art became a widespread phenomenon. In a few cases this activity may have been due to a…

FORGERIES iv. OF ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS Throughout the ages, manuscripts in Arabic script have been forged or tampered with for a variety of reasons. For example, in order to enhance the value of a manuscript, alterations are made to it to prove its antiquity. A dedication is fabricated, the date altered…

FORṢAT-AL-DAWLA (b. Shiraz,Ṣafar 1271/November 1854, d. Shiraz, 10 Ṣafar 1339/23 October 1920), pen name of the poet, scholar, and artist Mīrzā Moḥammad-Naṣīr (or Naṣīr-al-Dīn) Ḥosaynī Šīrāzī, also known as Mīrzā Āqā and Mīrzā-ye Forṣat (FIGURE 1). Forṣat began his education at the age of six, and by the age eleven…

FORSTER, GEORGE (b. 1752; d. Nagpur, 5 January 1791), traveller, writer, and diplomatist, was an East India Company civil servant of the Madras Presidency from 1770-91. Details of his birth and parentage remain frustratingly unknown. His name is included as one of the 37 signatories to a letter of the…

FORTIFICATIONS. The present article deals with the fortified passages and defenses that are implied under the term bārū. Certain passes in Persia still feature barriers going back to the Achaemenid period. An example is the stone wall at the Kotal-e Sangar in Fārs, which bars the way from Persepolis and…