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ISMAʿILISM xiii. ISMAʿILI LITERATURE IN PERSIAN AND ARABIC Ismaʿili literature (“literature” is used here in its wider sense to include all the written products of scholarly disciplines delineated by learning, religion, and science) refers to the literary production of more than a millennium, from the middle of the 3rd/9th century…

ISMAʿILISM xiv. ISMAʿILISM IN GINĀN LITERATURE A conspicuous feature in the intellectual history of Nezāri Ismaʿili Shiʿism has been the fundamental impulse to translate the concept of the Imam, which is the central aspect of their faith, within the frameworks of the various philosophical and theological systems it encountered as…

ISMAʿILISM xv. NEZĀRI ISMAʿILI MONUMENTS The principal monuments of the Nezāri Ismaʿili state, which also defined and defended its boundaries, were the exceptionally well-constructed and provisioned castles that dominated the surrounding valleys and countryside. These castles varied in size from the massive fortified complex built on the sides and the…

ISMAʿILISM xvi. MODERN ISMAʿILI COMMUNITIES The Ismaʿilis consist of two main branches—the Nezāri Ismaʿilis and the Mustaʿlian Ṭayyebi Ismaʿilis. Both have their roots in the Fatimid period of Ismaʿili history and differ primarily over their respective belief in the Imamate, spiritual leadership of the community. The Nezāri branch believes in…

ISMAʿILISM xvii. THE IMAMATE IN ISMAʿILISM In common with all major Shiʿite groups, the Ismaʿilis (q.v.) believe that the Imamate is a divinely sanctioned and guided institution, through whose agency Muslims are enabled to contextualize the practice of their faith and to understand fully the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of…

ISRAEL: Relations with Iran. This entry is divided into the following four sub-entries: i. Diplomatic and political relations with Iran. ii. The Jewish Persian community. iii. Iranian Studies in Israel. iv. Persian art collections in Israel. 

ISRAEL, continued i. DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH IRAN The relationship between Israel and Iran has since the very inception of the Jewish state in 1948 been a complex function of Iran’s geo-strategic imperatives as a non-Arab, non-Sunni state in an overwhelmingly Arab and Sunni environment, and its need to…

ISRAEL ii. THE JEWISH PERSIAN COMMUNITY Definition and background. Jews of Persian origin and their descendants who live in the State of Israel and constitute an integral and active part of its general population. As a convenient but rather too broad and loosely defined ethno-cultural and demographic notion, the designation…

ISRAEL iii. IRANIAN STUDIES IN ISRAEL A department of Iranian Studies was only formally established in Israel in 1970, but scholars working in Israel have been interested in aspects of Iranian history and culture since long before that date. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the first university in Israel, was…

ISRAEL iv. PERSIAN ART COLLECTIONS Persian art in most of the Israeli collections represent the entire history of Iran, with a strong emphasis on the Islamic period, and including Judaic-Persian ethnography. The following article is arranged in a chronological order. The Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem. This museum houses an important…

ISRĀʾILIYĀT.See QEṢAṢ AL-ANBIĀʾ.

ITALY: relations with Iran. This entry is divided into the following sections: i. Introduction. ii. Diplomatic and commercial relations. iii. Cultural relations. iv. Travel accounts. v. Iranian Studies, pre-Islamic. vi. Excavations in Iran. vii. Iranian Studies, Islamic period. viii. Persian manuscripts. ix. Persian art collections. x. Lirica Persica. xi. Translations…

ITALY i. INTRODUCTION Direct commercial and political relations between the Italian peninsula and the Iranian plateau date at least from the Parthian period when, after the fall of the Seleucids, the border between the Arsacids and the Roman Empire was set on the Euphrates, while Mesopotamia and Anatolia provided the…

ITALY ii. DIPLOMATIC AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS A privileged relationship between Iran and Italy dates back to the age of the ancient Roman and Persian Empires. Despite their ever-changing internal affairs, the two political centers of Europe and Asia, throughout the entire ancient time, experienced long lasting contacts that produced political…