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GOWRAK, a Kurdish tribe in northwestern Persia. It is an offshoot of the Mokri tribe (Tābāni, p. 74) and is divided into three branches: (1) The Gowrak-e Mahā-bād, or Gowrak-e Mokri, who dwell in twenty-four villages near the sources of the Tatavu river, in the dehestān of Gowrak, south of…

GŌZIHR, the Middle Persian development of an old Iranian compound adjective *gau-čiθra-, recorded in the Younger Avesta (Yašt 7, passim; Y. 1.11; 16.4; Vd. 21.9), in the form gaočiθra-, as an epithet of the moon, “bearing the seed, having the origin of cattle” (or, “the ox”). This is translated in…

ḠOZZ, a significant Turkic tribe in western Eurasia in the 5th century. i. Origins. ii. Tribe.   i. ORIGINS Ḡozz is the rendering by Muslim geographers of the Turkic Oḡuz. Oḡur, the Bulḡaro-Čuvašic form of this term, is noted as the name of a Turkic people in Western Eurasia in…

GRANICUS, river (mod. Kocabaş Çay) flowing into the Sea of Marmara. The Granicus was the site of the first battle between Alexander the Great and a Persian army. In late May 334 B.C.E. Alexander was moving east towards the river from the Troad, when he heard that the Persian commanders…

GRANT DUFF, Sir EVELYN MOUNTSTUART (b. 1863, d. Bath, 1926), British diplomat serving successively in Rome, Tehran (1892-94 when he passed a Persian language exam), St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Berlin, then London. In London he was in attendance on Moẓaffar-al-Din Shah during his state visit in 1902, and in January 1903…

GRANT, Captain NATHANIEL PHILIP, a military officer of the East India Company (b. New York 1774, k. near Ḵorramābād, April 1810). He arrived in India as a cadet in December 1800, eventually serving as a captain in the Bengal fifteenth native infantry regiment. In January 1809 Grant was sent by…

GRANTOVSKIĬ, EDVIN ARVIDOVICH (b. 16 February 1932 in Moscow; d. 28 June 1995; Figure 1), Russian Iranologist of Latvian descent. Grantovskiĭ graduated from the Faculty of History at the University of Moscow in 1954; from 1955 until the end of his life, he worked at the Moscow Institute for Oriental…

GRAPHIC ARTS. Broadly speaking, graphic art and design have a long history in Persia. Their antecedents can be seen in graphic motifs and patterns on ancient clay and metal vessels, stone reliefs, seals, brickwork, glazed tiles, plaster and wood carvings, cloths, carpets, marquetry, miniature paintings, calligraphy, and illumination of manuscripts…

GRAY, BASIL (b. 21 July 1904; d. 10 June, 1989; ; Figure 1), art historian and the keeper of Oriental antiquities at the British Museum (1946-69). He was the younger son of a surgeon in the Army Medical Corps. He was educated at Bradfield School and at New College Oxford,…

GRAY, LOUIS HERBERT, orientalist and philologist (b. Newark, New Jersey, 10 April, 1875; d. New York, New York, 18 August, 1955; ; Figure 1), who was associated with Columbia University throughout most of his academic life. Gray received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics from Princeton University in 1896…

  GREAT BRITAIN i. Introduction. ii. An Overview of Relations: Safavid to the Present. iii. British influence in Persia in the 19th Century. iv. British influence in Persia, 1900–21. v. British influence during the Reżā Shah period, 1921-41. vi. British influence in Persia, 1941–79. vii. British Travelers to Persia. viii. British Archeological Excavations. ix. Iranian Studies in Britain, Pre-Islamic….