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PANDIYĀT-E JAVĀNMARDI, title of a Nezāri Ismaʿili book originally written in Persian and containing the sermons of Mostanṣer Be’llāh (d. 885/1480), the thirty-second imam of the (Qāsemšāhi) Nezāri Ismaʿilis.  These sermons or religious admonitions (pandiyāt) to the true believers (moʾmens) seeking exemplary standards of ethical behavior and spiritual chivalry (javānmardi)…

PANJIKANT (Sogd. Pancyknδ), a Sogdian city, the ruins of which are located in the southern periphery of the present-day city of Panjakent (in western Tajikistan). Location and early history. At the beginning of the 8th century Panjikant was the main settlement of the Panč district, a fact reflected in its…

PAPER writing material invented in China that spread throughout Asia and to Iran in the pre-Islamic period. i. Paper in the Iranian World Prior to Printing. ii. Paper and Papermaking.

PAPER i. Paper in the Iranian World Prior to Printing Paper (kāḡaḏ) is a mat of cellulose fibers that have been beaten in the proximity of water and then collected on a screen and dried.  The fibers can come from many different kinds of plants or waste such as rags,…

PAPER ii. Paper and Papermaking PAPER AND PAPERMAKING (kāḡaḏ wa kāḡaḏ-sāzi/kāḡaḏgari), a survey of the paper industry in Iran in recent centuries. Before the introduction of the art of papermaking in Persia, records were kept mostly on clay tablets under the Achaemenids (550-330 B.CE) and later also on papyrus. Other…

PARIḴĀN ḴĀNOM (b. near Ahar, Rajab 955/August 1548; d. Qazvin, 4 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 985/12 February 1578), the second daughter of Shah Ṭahmāsp I (Qomi, p. 337), a politically influential and colorful figure at the Safavid court. After the death of his brother Bahrām Mirzā in 1549, Shah Ṭahmāsp I, who had…

PARMENIO, son of Philotas, of high nobility, probably from mountainous Upper Macedonia (b. ca. 400 BCE, d. 330 BCE). He became Philip II’s most successful general (Philip jocularly called him his “only” general: Plutarch, Moralia 177c) as well as his most trusted adviser. A friend of Attalus, also of high…

PARSI COMMUNITIES i. EARLY HISTORY Qeṣṣa-ye Sanjān (The Story of Sanjān). Iranians have been involved in trade with India from Achaemenid times, but the creation of a Parsi settlement in India was the outcome of the migration of Zoroastrian refugees from their original homeland in medieval Islamic Persia. There is…

PARSI COMMUNITIES ii. IN CALCUTTA In comparison to the Parsis of Bombay, other Parsi communities of India have received less attention. From the 19th century onward Bombay became the principal Parsi center and the headquarters of the Parsis of India. In fact, the Parsis or Zoroastrians of India settled extensively…

PASARGADAE, the spacious capital and last resting place of Cyrus the Great (559-530 BCE). Located in northern Fārs in the fertile and well-watered Dasht-i Murghab (Dašt-e morḡāb), the site stands 1,900 m above sea level at 30°15’ N and 53°14’ E.  In a straight line, Pasargadae lies 40 km to…

PAUL THE PERSIAN, a writer who lived at the time of the Nestorian Patriarch Ezekiel (567-80 C.E.), according to Bar Hebraeus (Chron. Eccl. II; ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, 1872, cols. 97-98), and was well versed in ecclesiastical and philosophical matters. Having once aspired to be the metropolitan bishop of Persis,…