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ISFAHAN xvi. ISFAHAN IN THE MIRROR OF FOLKLORE AND LEGEND Systematic collection of the folklore of Isfahan is mostly due to Amirqoli Amini, whose first publication was a collection of Persian dicta entitled hazār o yak soḵan. He followed this book with a more extensive collection of Isfahan’s narrative folklore,…

ISFAHAN xviii. JEWISH COMMUNITY The beginning of the Jewish settlement in Isfahan is mixed with legends, but there are fragmentary source materials that enable us to reconstruct the major historical events concerning its Jewish community. According to The Standard Jewish Encyclopaedia (s.v. Isfahan), “The Talmud ascribes the foundation of Isfahan…

ISFAHAN xix. JEWISH DIALECT Introduction. The dialect spoken by the Jews of Isfahan (henceforth IsfJ.) belongs to the Central Dialect (CPD) group (also called Median dialects by some scholars) of Northwestern Iranian languages (NWI). The original speech form of the city of Isfahan (see also xxi. PROVINCIAL DIALECTS and xx….

ISFAHAN xx. GEOGRAPHY OF THE MEDIAN DIALECTS OF ISFAHAN The continuum of Central Plateau Dialects appears along a northwest-souteast axis traversing the modern provinces of Hamadān, Markazi, Isfahan, and Yazd, that is, the area of Ancient Media Major. The lion’s share goes to Isfahan, where Median is spoken in many…

ISFAHAN xxi. PROVINCIAL DIALECTS Within the boundaries of Isfahan Province, in addition to a large number of Iranian languages and dialects, we also find a small minority of non-Iranian languages. The Iranian languages of Isfahan Province are of three basic types: (1) Northwest Iranian (NWI) dialects belonging to the Central…

ISFAHAN xxii. GAZI DIALECT Gazi, spoken in the city of Gaz in the district of Borḵᵛār (dialect: bolxār), belongs to the Central Plateau Dialect group (CPD, see CENTRAL DIALECTS) of Northwestern Iranian (NWI) languages. Gazi, the Jewish dialect of Isfahan (see above, xix; henceforth JDI), Sedehi, and probably other uninvestigated…

ISFAHAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY (l’école d’Isfahan), the term coined by Henry Corbin (1903-78) and Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933-) to describe a philosophical and mystical movement patronized by the court of Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1588-1629), centered in the new Safavid capital of Isfahan, and initiated as part of the wider…

ISFAHAN viii. QAJAR PERIOD The Qajar period (1794-1925) was marked by far-reaching political, social, and economic changes that were particularly evident in the major urban centers. The historical changes affecting the Isfahan of this period included the following: the loss of its status as the royal capital and its transformation…

ISIDORUS OF CHARAX (Gk. Isídōros ho Charakēnós), Greek geographical author, about whose life and person no more is reliably known than that he originated from Characene. Everything else must be derived from the few preserved remains of his writings. Even his lifetime is in dispute. According to the traditional view…

IŠKATA, in the Avesta the name of a mountain (Yt. 19.3; Y. 10.11) and in Yt. 10.14 that of the land (situated in the Hindu Kush region) which is dominated by this mountain. It is mentioned in the list of the mountains of the Iranian countries at the beginning of…

ISLAM AKHUN (Eslām-āḵūn), treasure-seeker and swindler active in Khotan and neighboring areas between 1894 and 1901, best known, however, as an adept forger of manuscripts and block prints in various pseudo-scripts. He was eventually unmasked by Sir Aurel Stein (1862-1943) in 1901. Following the discovery in 1889 of the “Bower…

ISLAM IN IRAN. Although a large number of articles in this Encyclopaedia are devoted to specific aspects of Sunnite Islam in general and Shiʿite Islam in particular, the following series of articles provide an overview of some historical, contemporary, and especially political aspects of the topic that are of special…

ISLAM IN IRAN 2. Messianism and Millenarianism in Islam With the rise of political Islamic movements in the latter half of the 20th century, and the increasing politicization of theological conceptions of messianism and millenarianism in Islam, the concept and significance of the Mahdi in Islam in general and in…