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GILĀN xiv. Ethnic Groups The organization of work in Gilān is marked by an apparently ethnic division of labor. Each group living in the province is characterized by one or several specific production activities, so that an ethnonym refers as much to territorial, linguistic, and cultural roots as to any…

GILĀN   xv. Popular and Literary Perceptions of Identity Peoples and ethnic groups are often referred to in association with culinary habits that are regarded as peculiarly distasteful. In Afghanistan, Uzbeks are called “noodle eaters” by their neighbors and in Persia the Arabs from Khuzestan are stigmatized as susmārḵor “lizard…

GILAN xvi. Folklore The folklore of Gilān is a striking example of the intricate ties between pre-Islamic practices and Islamic rituals.  TREE, OX, AND EGG IN REGIONAL FOLKLORE This syncretism is particularly striking in the location of the sanctuaries (emāmzāda and boqʿa for the Shiʿites, and torba for the Sunnite…

GILAN xvii. Gender Relations The division of activities and spaces between the sexes is quite distinct in the province of Gilan. On the Iranian plateau, and in the Middle East in general, feminine is opposed to masculine as the inside is to the outside, as private is to public, as…

GILĀN xviii. Rural Production Techniques  In general, a considerable range of techniques is used to produce such diversified commodities as rice, silk, tea, tobacco, vegetables, olives, and wheat. One can, however, speak of a distinctly Gilāni technical system. On the one hand, several tools and other original means of acting…

GILĀN xix. Landholding and Social Stratification Prior to the Land Reform of 1962 that began the process of land redistribution, the dominant production system in Gilān, as in the majority of Persianprovinces, was of a feudal nature. The often absentee landowner (arbāb), large or small, owned most of the arable…

GILĀN viiia. In the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11 Two classes featured prominently in Gilān as the driving forces of the revolution, and the alliance of these two, the peasantry and the urban petty-bourgeoisie of artisans, shopkeepers, and petty traders, was the hallmark of a radical movement on the southern shores…

GILĀN xx. Handicrafts The Gilān region does not have a great craft tradition, as do other provinces of the interior of Iran with their towns famous for one or more specialties: carpets, ceramics, metalwork, etc. At most we might number among local traditions silk or floss silk cloth (the celebrated…

GILĀN xxi. Cooking Eating habits and culinary preparations in Gilān have several distinct characteristics. In this rice-producing region, the consumption of rice is much higher than elsewhere in Persia. Garden vegetables and kitchen herbs (sabzi) generally appear in the makeup of most dishes and give the regional cuisine the green…

GĪLĀN, title of four newspapers published in Rašt. 1. Biweekly organ of the provincial anjoman (q.v.) of Gīlān (Anjoman-e welāyatī-e Gīlān), it was published from 18 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1326/11 January 1909 to 3 Jamāda I 1327/23 May 1909, twelve issues in all. It replaced Anjoman-e welāyatī-e Gīlān which had suspended publication…

GILANENTZ CHRONICLE, a compendium of reports collated as a journal by Petros di Sarkis Gilanentz (Gilanencʿ), which constitutes an important source for the history of events in Transcaucasia and Persia during the period March 1722 to August 1723, notably the Afghan invasion and siege of Isfahan. The Gilanentz chronicle exists…

GILCHRIST, JOHN BORTHWICK (b. 19 June 1759 in Edinburgh; d. 8 January 1841 in Paris; Figure 1), physician, Indologist, and teacher of Persian and Urdu.  He pioneered the Western study and teaching of modern Indian languages in British India. Abandoned by his parents in childhood, Gilchrist was educated through a…

ḠILZĪ or ḠALZĪ (Pashtu/Paxtu plural of sg. masc. Ḡilzāy and sg. fem. Ḡilzey), one of three major Pashtun/Paxtun tribal confederations in Afghanistan. The other two are the Dorrānī, formerly the Abdālī (qq.v.), in western Afghanistan and the Karlānrī, who straddle the border between Afghanistan and the Northwest Frontier Province. Although…