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GUIDI, IGNAZIO, prominent Italian Orientalist (b. Rome, 31 July 1844; d. Rome, 18 March 1935; Figure 1). Guidi can be counted among the greatest of the Orientalist scholars (cf. Baumstark, p. 239), a fact that is emphasized by his membership in numer-ous societies and academies. He mastered a large number…

GUIDI’S CHRONICLE, an anonymous, 7th-century chronicle of Nestorian Christians, known also as “the Khuzistan Chronicle,” written in Syriac and covering the period from the reign of the Sasanian Hormizd/Hormoz IV (579-89) to the middle of the 7th century and the time of the early Arab conquests. It was discovered by…

GUILLEMIN, MARCELLE, a well known scholar of ancient Near Eastern organology and ancient music theory (b. Liège, Belgium, 5 July 1907; d. Liège, 3 December 1997; Figure 1). She studied musicology under the supervision of Charles Van den Borren and ancient Mesopotamian civilization with Georges Dossin at the University of…

GUJARAT (Skt. Gurjará), a province of India on its northwestern coastline. Gujarat derives its name from the Indo-Iranian Gujar tribes, which entered north India around 550 C.E. with the White Huns and established their presence in southern Rajasthan, with their headquarters at Bhilmal, to the northwest of Mount Abu. Among…

GUJARATI (or Gojarati), the mother tongue of Gujaratis, which has been for centuries a vehicle of thought and expression for Hindus, Parsis, and Muslims of Gu-jarat in western India. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European family of languages. Gujarat is geographically separated from…

GUKLĀN (Turk. Göklen), a Turkmen tribal confederacy of the Gorgān region in northeastern Persia, the district of Qara Qalʿa in Turkmenistan, and the Ḵiva region in Uzbekistan. In the Gorgān region, the Guklān occupy a small tract of land extending from Yās Tapa on the south bank of the Gorgān…

ḠUL, designation of a fantastic, frightening creature in the Perso-Arabic lore. It is a hideous monster with a feline head, forked tongue, hairy skin, and deformed legs that resemble the limp and skinny legs of a prematurely born infant (Nöldeke, p. 670). To the Arabs, ḡuls (Ar. pl. ḡilān, aḡwāl)…

GULBARGA (Golbargā), city and district in the central Deccan, India. The city, located at 17° 21′ N and 76° 51′ E, belonged, prior to 1947, to the territory of the Neẓām of Hyderabad. It became the first capital of the Bahmanid dynasty (748-934/1347-1527; q.v.) when, in 748/1347, a rebel Tughluqid…

GULBENKIAN, CALOUSTE (b. Constantinople, 23 March 1869; d. Lisbon, 20 July 1955; Figure 1), Armenian oil financier, art collector, and philanthropist. Calouste Gulbenkian was the eldest son of Sarkis, an importer-exporter, and Dirouhi, who was said to have descended from Persian Armenians. His father’s standing in Ottoman society offered young…

GULF WAR and PERSIA (correctly Persian Gulf War). Iran/Persia maintained a policy of neutrality during the war between Iraq, whose forces occupied Kuwait on 2 August 1990, and the coalition led by the United States. The Foreign Ministry of Iran immediately condemned the attack on Kuwait and called for the…

GUMĒZIŠN, a Middle Persian noun, spelled gwmycšn in Pahlavi and gwmyzyšn in Manichean script, meaning “mixing, mingling, mixture.” It is derived from the verb gumēxtan, gumēz- “to mix,” like the close synonym gumēzagīh, with which it alternates in use. It is used, for example, for the gumēzišn ī āb andar…