Explore Iranica

GNOLI, GHERARDO  (b. Rome, 6 December 1937; d. Cagli, 7 March 2012; Figure 1), one of the most distinguished Iranists and historians of religion of his generation, combining an extraordinary scientific output with a constant focus on cultural policy, which expressed itself in his vigorous direction of two important Italian…

GNOSTICISM in Persia. i. In the pre-Islamic Iranian world. ii. In Islam. See ʿERFĀN.   i. in the pre-islamic iranian world Definition. The current academic term gnosticism (mainly in English) or gnosis (< Gk. gnōsis “cognition, knowledge”) goes back to the early Christian period (cf. 1. Tim. 6.20) and has...

GOAT. See BOZ.    

GŌBADŠĀH, the name of a mythical ruler first appearing in medieval Zoroastrianism. In Pahlavi his name is variously spelled gwpt-, gwkpt-, gwpyt- + -šh, -MLKA. According to the Bundahišn (29.5 ff.), “the son of Agrērah [Av. aγraēraθa] i Pašangān, whom they call Gōbadšāh,” is the spiritual master (rad) of a…

ḠOBĀRI, ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN b. ʿAbd-Allāh, Ottoman poet, calligrapher, and Sufi who wrote in both Turkish and Persian (d. 974/1566). According to Ḡobāri himself (Kaʿba-nāma, MS Manisa, fol. 10), he was born in Akşehir (Āq-šahr). He came to Istanbul, most probably after completing his primary education, where he studied with the celebrated…

ḠOBAYRĀ, medieval township in Kermān province, located at 57° 29 E and 47° N, 70 km by road south of Kermān City (historical Bardsir) at the intersection of the medieval eastern highway and the route from Kermān to Bāft, Esfandaqa, and Jiroft. The name is Arabic, feminine diminutive from ḡabara…

GOBINEAU, Joseph Arthur de, (b. Ville-d’Avray, near Paris, 14 July 1816; d. Turin, 13 October 1882), French man of letters, artist, polemist, Orientalist, and diplomat, whose influential socio-historical and racial theories were expounded in his writings, and particularly in his Essai sur l’inégalité desraces humaines (hereafter Essai). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Gobineau…

GÖBL, ROBERT, Austrian numismatist (b. Vienna, 4 August 1919; d. 8 December 1997; ; Figure 1). He joined the military in 1938, after graduating from high school, and spent the next nine years in the service, returning to Vienna only after the end of World War II. Göbl entered the…

GOBRYAS, the most widely known (Greek) form of the Old Persian name Gaub(a)ruva (q.v.). Several bearers of this name, who cannot always be kept separate from one another with complete certainty, are historical persons: 1. Ug-ba-ru, governor (paḫātu) of the land of Gutium (i.e., some part of western Media and…

GODARD, ANDRÉ (b. Chaumont, France, 1881; d. Paris, 1965; ; Figure 1), French architect, archeologist, art historian, and director of the Archeological Services of Iran (Edāra-ye koll-e ʿatiqāt). A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts of Paris, Godard also studied Middle Eastern and especially Iranian archeology. Like Ernst Herzfeld (q.v.),…

GŌDARZ, name of various Iranian historical figures; an Iranian epic hero in wars against the “Turanians” in northeastern Iran; and the scion of a clan of paladins in Iranian traditional history. i. Historical figures. ii. The epic hero. iii. The Godarzian.     I. HISTORICAL FIGURES The name Gōdarz (Gk….

GODIN (GOWDIN) TEPE, an archeological site in the central Zagros, which was occupied from ca. 5,000 to 500 B.C.E. It is located at 48° 4′ E and 34° 31′ N in the Kangāvar valley, approximately halfway between Hamadān and Kermānšāh. The site today covers approximately fifteen hectares. The north side,…

GOETHE INSTITUTE in Persia and Afghanistan. Named after the celebrated German poet and writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the Goethe Institute was founded in 1951 in Munich as a non-profit organization for training foreign teachers of the German language. In the next few years, it began teaching German both…