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KHORDEH AVESTĀ (Pahlavi xwardag aβistāg) “The Little Avesta,” the name given to a collection of texts used primarily by the laity for everyday devotions. Thus, it excludes the high liturgy of the priestly ritual, namely, the Yasna, Visperad, and Vendidād. What the Khordeh Avestā does include is not uniform. The…

KHORRAMABAD (Ḵorramābād), sub-province and capital city of Lorestan Province. This entry is divided into the following two articles: i. The town and sub-province (forthcoming). ii. Population 1956-2011.

KHORRAMABAD ii. Population, 1956-2011 This article deals with the following population characteristics of Khorramabad city: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status for 2006 and/or 2011 (different dates for the categories are determined by the availability of census data). Population…

KHORRAMSHAHR (Ḵorramšahr; formerly known as Moḥammara), port city on the confluence of the rivers Karun and Shatt al-Arab, in the province of Ḵuzestān, and approximately 35 miles northwest of the head of the Persian Gulf. This entry is divided into two separate articles: Physical and human geography. Population.

KHORRAMSHAHR i. Physical and Human Geography From the end of the 19th century onwards, Khorramshahr developed into Iran’s major commercial harbor. This development was a result of the excellent navigability of the river, with a draft for shipping of up to nine meters. Its development, however, was hampered by both…

KHORRAMSHAHR ii. Population, 1956-2011 This article deals with the following population characteristics of Khorramshahr city: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status for 2006 and/or 2011 (different dates for the categories are determined by the availability of census data). Population…

KHOTAN, town (lat 37°06′ N, long 79°56′ E) and major oasis of the southern Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, historically an important kingdom with an Iranian-speaking population. The indigenous name for the people was Old Khotanese hvatana, the land was hvatana-kṣīra (later hvaṃ-kṣīra), and the…

KHOTAN i. Geography Located between the northern foot of the Kunlun mountains and the edge of the Taklamakan desert (Figure 1), the city of Khotan had a population of 184,500 in 2000, mainly Uyghurs (about 84 percent). It is today a major administrative center of the Khotan Prefecture, a vast…

KHOTAN ii. HISTORY IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD Earlier period. The documentation on the oasis/kingdom of Khotan started when the Chinese became aware of its existence. This was due to the report of the envoy Zhang Qian, who, some time after 140 BCE, was sent by the emperor Wudi (r. 141-87…

KHOTAN iv. KHOTANESE LITERATURE Khotanese literature is the body of writings contained in a large number of manuscripts and manuscript folios and fragments written from the 5th to the 10th century in the Khotanese language, the Eastern Middle Iranian language of the Buddhist Saka kingdom of Khotan on the southern…

KHUJAND (Ḵojand), a city in northwestern Tajikistan located on the middle course of the Syr Daryā River, about 150 km south of Tashkent and near the entrance to the Farḡāna valley. History. The origins of Khujand are obscure, but archeological evidence indicates the existence of an urban center there as…

KHUZESTAN viii. Dialects The local dialects of Khuzestan, as elsewhere in Iran, are under severe pressure from the standard language. Factors threatening their existence are the increase in literacy, the spread of the mass media, including the Internet, and economic growth. The last mentioned has encouraged the sedentarization of tribes,…

KHWARAZMSHAHS i. DESCENDANTS OF THE LINE OF ANUŠTIGIN After the Saljuq takeover in Khwarazm in the early 1040s, the Saljuq Sultans appointed various governors in the province, including Alp Arslān’s (r. 1063-72) son Arslān Arḡun, a son of the vizier Neẓām-al-Molk (1018-92), and several Turkish ḡolām commanders (see BARDA and…

KIĀ, ṢĀDEQ (b. Tehran, 15 May 1920; d. Missoula, Montana, 1 March 2002; Figure 1), educator, lexicologist, and the director of the second Persian Language Academy (Farhangestān-e zabān-e Irān).  Born Moḥammad-Ṣādeq to a family with Māzandarāni roots who were in the government service for generations, Kiā studied at Adab and…

KIĀNI, SAYYED NĀDERŠĀH (b. Kulāb, 1897; d. 1970), 20th century Ismaʿili poet and writer of Afghanistan, born in Kulāb, southwestern Tajikistan. Towards the end of the 16th century, an ancestor of his, Sayyed Ṣāleḥšāh, later nicknamed Šāh-e Abdāl, was probably summoned by the Ismaʿili imams in Persia to organize the…