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MONCHI-ZADEH, DAVOUD (Dāvud Monšizāda; b. Tehran, 28 August 1914; d. Uppsala, 13 July 1989), Iranian linguist and political activist. Davoud Monchi-Zadeh is mainly remembered for his contributions to Iranian linguistics, particularly to the study of Modern and Middle Iranian languages. However, he also led an active political life in Iran…

MONGOLS, an Altaic people whose home lay in the east of the modern republic of Mongolia, and who, under the leadership of Temüjin (d. 624/1227; better known as Čengiz Khan), conquered an empire that embraced China, Central Asia, the south Russian steppe, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. The last Mongol emperor…

MONGOLS ii. MONGOLIAN LOANWORDS IN PERSIAN It is difficult to analyze Mongolian elements in Persian separately from the Turkic ones. This is due to the fact that the speakers of both languages had been in contact with each other for a long time before the Mongolian presence can be traced…

MONJIK TERMEḎI, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALI B. MOḤAMMAD, a Persian-language poet of the late 10th century. Termeḏi’s name, Monjik, is probably derived from monj “honeybee,” as in one distich he calls himself small like a monj and refers to his poems being as sweet as honey: Har čand ḥaqiram soḵanam ʿāli-o širin…

MONẒEM, Mirzā ʿAbd-al-Wāḥed (Tajik: Mirzo Abdulvohidi Munzim; b. Bukhara, 1875 or 1877; d. Stalinabad [Dushanbe], 4 March 1934), Tajik poet, social activist, and journalist. Monẓem’s intellectual upbringing began at an early age. He became acquainted with the classical Persian poets at home, in part, from his mother’s readings to him…

MOOREY, Peter Roger Stuart (b. 30 May 1937, Bushill Park, Middlesex; d. 23 December 2004, Oxford), British archeologist and curator at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He published extensively on the material culture of various parts of the Ancient Near East, and his contributions to the archeology of Ancient Iran and…

MOQANNAʿ (lit. “the veiled one,” d. 163/780 or later), leader of a rebellious movement in Sogdiana.  Moqannaʿ’s name is usually given as Hāšem b. Ḥakim, but Ḥakim is also said to have been his own name, suggesting that some took the underlying Persian form, Hāšem-e Ḥakim, to mean Hāšem the…

MORḠ-E SAḤAR (Dawn bird), a taṣnif (song) in māhur mode with the verse in two stanzas written by Moḥammad-Taqi Bahār (q.v.) to correspond with piš-darāmads (overture) by the renowned musician Morteżā Ney-Dāwud. This song has had a long and troubled history. It has been sung as a comment on dictatorial…

MORḠĀB, district covering the Pamir Plateau in eastern Tajikistan, of which it is the administrative center. The name is transliterated as Murḡob in Tajik orthography, Murgab in Russian, and Mù ěr jiā bù (穆爾 加布) in Chinese.  One of the six districts (nohita, rayon) of Badaḵšān Province, Morḡāb spreads over 38,440…

MORGENSTIERNE, Georg Valentin von Munthe af, Norwegian linguist and Orientalist, specializing in Indo-Iranian languages, particularly those spoken in Afghanistan, the Pamirs, and the northwest of the Indian subcontinent (b. 3 January 1892, d. 3 March 1978; FIGURE 1). He was born in Oslo (then Kristiania), to a family that had…

MOSADDEQ, HAMID (Ḥamid Moṣaddeq, b. Šahreżā, 10 Bahman 1318 Š./30 January, 1940; d. 7 Āḏar 1377 Š./28 November 1998; FIGURE 1, FIGURE 2), poet, lawyer, and university professor.  Life. Hamid Mosaddeq was the second child born to Hāj ʿAbd-al Ḥosayn Moṣaddeq and Ašraf Āqā Moḥammadi, a prominent family from Šahreżā…

MOSAFERIDS (also Sallarids or Kangarids; this last form is more probable than that of Langarids; see Kasravi, pp. 36-37), a dynasty of Deylamite origin that ruled in northwestern Iran in the 4th-5th/10th-11th centuries.  Its original center of power was at Šamirān in the district of Ṭārom on the middle course…

MOSAHEB, GHOLAM-HOSAYN (Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Moṣāḥeb, b. Tehran, 2 Ābān 1289  Š./25 October 1910; d. Tehran, 21 Mehr 1358  Š./13 October 1979; Figure 1), scholar, mathematician, logician, and founder and general editor of the Dāyerat al-maʿāref-e fārsi. LIFE Mosaheb was the son of Moḥammad ʿAli (d. 27 November 1945) and Fāṭemeh (d….