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MINĀB, city and sub-province in the province of Hormozgān. The first mention of the toponym Mināb appears to be in Moḥammad-Jaʿfar Ḥosayni Ḵˇormuji’s 19th century Āṯār-e jaʿfari, under “Bandar-e ʿAbbās and its dependencies” (Ḥosayni Ḵˇormuji, p. 160). Mināb receives its name from Qalʿa-ye Minā (Minā castle), referred to in connection…

MINARET (manāra), a tower, usually attached to a mosque, from which the muezzin (moʾaḏḏen) summons Muslims to prayer. In Arabic, manāra originally denotes a lighthouse or signaling tower at sea. The minaret was not part of the architecture of the early Islamic period. It appeared first in the 8th and…

MINBĀŠIĀN, Ḡolām-Ḥosayn, violinist, pianist, and conductor of orchestra (b. Tehran, 5 Ābān 1286 Š/25 Nov. 1907; d. Tehran, Ābān 1357 Š /Nov. 1978). He was the son of Ḡolām-Reżā Minbāšiān Sālār Moʿazzaz and is known for his contemptuous disregard for traditional Persian music and his attempts to restructure and, to…

Mining in Iran i. Mines and Mineral Resources ii. Mineral Industries

MINING IN IRAN  i. MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES Archeological surveys indicate that Iran was among the leading nations in mining activity in ancient times (ʿAlipur, 1993-94). Its ancient civilizations, richness of natural resources, and records of ancient mining and metalworking are testimonies to such a claim (Zāvoš, 1976-77). The history…

MINING IN IRAN ii. MINERAL INDUSTRIES Iran is rich in mineral resources, but until recent times no systematic geological survey and inventory was made to determine the extent and quality of its mineral wealth. For example, the occurrence of chromite in Iran was only determined in 1940, and the enormous copper reserves…

MINORSKY, Vladimir Fed’orovich (1877-1966), outstanding Russian scholar of Persian history, historical geography, literature and culture, who worked on a very broad canvas, with contributions of substantial value in the related fields of Turkish, Mongol, Caucasian, Armenian, and Byzantine studies, where they touched on Persian studies in the broad sense. Backed…

MINOVI, MOJTABA (Mojtabā Minovi, b. Tehran, 19 Bahman 1282 Š./9 February 1903; d. Tehran, 6 Bahman, 1355 Š./26 January 1977), teacher, editor, translator, and literary scholar (FIGURE 1). LIFE The eldest of twelve siblings, Mojtabā Minovi was born into a family of religious scholars that traced its lineage to one…

MINT, a strongly scented herb of genus Mentha of flowering plants in the Labiatae family, with many medicinal properties. Mentha is named after Minthe, a charming fresh water nymph in classical mythology, who was metamorphosed into the humble, down-trodden mint plant by Proserpina, the suspicious wife of Pluto, the god…

MIRFENDERESKI, Sayyed Amir Abu’l-Qāsem b. Mirzā Beg b. Ṣadr-al-Din Moḥammad Ḥosayni Astarābādi, renowned philosopher and mystic during the Safavid revitalization of philosophy (b. 970/1562-63, Mashad; d. 1050/1640, Isfahan). Mir Fendereski remains a mysterious and enigmatic figure about whom we know very little. He was famed as a teacher of Peripatetic…

MIR-E NOWRUZI (lit. “The prince of the New Year festivities”) or Padešāh-e nowruz (lit. “The king of the New Year festivities”), the carnivalesque ritual of electing a commoner to rule for a period of one to five days over the country; it belongs to the traditional Nowruz festival (cf. Dehḵodā,…

MIRACLES i. In ancient Iranian tradition. ii. In Islam. See KARĀMA.

MIRACLES i. In Ancient Iranian Tradition The written accounts of miracles in ancient Iran, both those relating to Zoroaster and his family and those regarding the legendary heroes of the Kayanid dynasty, have come down to us through the Pahlavi religious literature.  The words used to designate them are: abd(īh)…

MIRATH-E MAKTUB (Mirāṯ-e Maktub), a research center in Tehran, focused on editing manuscripts (including those concerned with the history of science), cataloguing Persian and Arabic manuscripts in Iran and the wider Persianate cultural area, and studying related codicological issues. The establishment of centers concerned specifically with editing and publication of…