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GORĀN, ʿABD-ALLĀH SOLAYMĀN (1904-62), the leading Kurdish poet of the twentieth century. Born in Ḥalabja, in northeastern Iraq, Gorān received his formal education at local schools and the state pedagogical institute in Kerkuk. As a school teacher in his native city he continued his self-education by studying foreign languages and…

ḠŌRBAND (ḠURBAND), a major valley of Kōhe-stān/Kuhestān and a sub-province (woloswāli) of Parvān province in the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush massif, located approximately 50 miles north of Kabul. The term Ḡōrband probably derives from Ḡōr/Ḡur (q.v.), the name of the mountainous region northwest of Ḡōrband, and the Persian…

GORDĀFARID, daughter of Gaždaham (q.v.), the castellan of Dež-e Sapid (q.v.), the Iranian fortress on the frontier with Turān. She plays a daringly martial role in the tragic episode of Rostam and Sohrāb (Šāh-nāma, ed. Khaleghi, II, pp. 130-37). Upon Sohrāb’s attack on Dež-e Sapid and the defeat and capture…

GORDON, General Sir THOMAS EDWARD (1832–1914), British intelligence officer, director of the Imperial Bank of Persia (Bānk-e šāhi-e Irān; see BANKING) from 1893 to 1914, author, and apparently the first person to use the term Middle East, which meant particularly Persia and Afghanistan. Entering the army at age seventeen, Gordon…

GORGĀN i. Geography. ii. Dašt-e Gorgān. iii. Population. iv. Archeology. v. Pre-Islamic history. vi. History from the rise of Islam to the beginning of the Safavid period. vii. History from the Safavids to the end of the Pahlavi era.

GORGĀN, the ancient Hyrcania, an important Persian province at the southeast corner of the Caspian sea. i. Geography In June 1997, the eastern part of the Māzandarān Province, consisting of the two sub-provinces of Gorgān and Gonbad-e Kāvus/Qābus (formerly called Dašt-e Gorgān) were brought together to form a new province…

GORGĀN ii. Dašt-e Gorgān Dašt-e Gorgān is the designation of a steppe-region of approximately 10,000 km2 near the southeastern edge of the Caspian Sea, stretching for almost 200 km east-west between Morāva Tappa and the coast of the Caspian Sea near Gomišān. Its north-south extension is about 50 km and…