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RAFʿAT (REFʿAT), pen name (taḵalloṣ) of ḠOLĀM JILĀNI (d. 27 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1234/17 October 1819), scholar of Arabic and Persian literature, teacher at Rampur, and author of a versified Persian “battlelogue” (jang-nāma) titled Dorr-e manẓum. Estimations of Ḡolām Jilāni’s date of birth range from ca. 1720 (Aḥmad-ʿAli Šawq, p. 284) to ca. 1742 (Mināʾi, p….

RĀḠEB EṢFAHĀNI, Abul’l-Qāsem Ḥosayn b. Moḥammad b Mofażżal (d. early 5th/11th cent.), scholar, littérateur, and author of works on Islamic ethics, Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic theology, and Arabic philology, as well as anthologies. Next to nothing is known about his life, since he is hardly mentioned in major biographical dictionaries; and…

RAHAVARD (Rahāvard), a Los Angeles-based quarterly (website: www.rahavard.com), founded by Hasan Shabaz (1921-2006), writer, journalist and translator, and one of the first Persian periodicals published by the Persian community in the U.S.A. after the Iranian revolution of 1979. Upon an invitation by Nāder Ṣāleḥ, the founder of the “Society of…

RAḤIMZĀDA, BĀQI (Boqī Rahimzoda in Tajik orthography; b. Sorboḡi, 15 May 1910; d. Dushanbe, 30 January 1980), Tajik poet who adapted classical Persian-Tajik forms to the social and cultural goals of the Soviet era. Bāqi Raḥimzāda was born into a rural, mountain family of slender material means, but one in…

RAHMANI, NOSRAT (Noṣrat Raḥmāni, b. Tehran, 10 Esfand 1308 Š./1 March 1930; d. Rasht, 27 Ḵordād 1379 Š./16 June 2000), noted poet of the1960s-90s (Figure 1, Figure 2)  LIFE Nosrat Rahmani was born to Assadollāh Rahmani, an automobile mechanic with a keen interest in classical poetry, and Fāṭemeh Mirzāḵāni (Orand,…

RĀHNEMĀ-YE ZENDAGI (The guide to life), a biweekly magazine published in Tehran by the then well-known novelist and translator Ḥosaynqoli Mostaʿān from 15 November 1940 to 16 December 1941. Starting with the sixth issue, Māhṭalʿat Pesyān was named as chief editor. Rāhnemā-ye zendagi was a popular magazine due to the…

RAILROADS i. THE FIRST RAILROAD BUILT AND OPERATED IN PERSIA During the three decades between the 1850s and the 1880s various French, Belgian, British, Russian and American concerns attempted to introduce railways to Persia, but these did not materialize, either due to lack of adequate capital or because of the…

RAJʿA (lit.: “return”). Abuʾl-Ḥasan Ašʿari (q.v., d. 935) introduces this concept in his work Maqālāt al-eslāmiyin as a belief held by a large majority of the “Rāfeża”—which in this context means Imami Shiʿites (Ašʿari, p. 46; on the term in general see Kohlberg, “Rāfiḍa”). In his Ketāb al-enteṣār, the Muʿtazilite…

RĀM WA SITĀ, an early 17th-century Persian translation of an ancient Indian love story epic in Vālmiki’s Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa (ca. the 2nd cent. BCE) that narrates the earthly career of Rām (Skr. Rāma), an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and his wife Sitā.  It was translated in the maṯnawi genre…

RAM, Emad (ʿEmād Rām, b. Sāri, Māzandarān, 11 Esfand 1309 Š./3 March 1931; d. Germany, 3 Ḵordād 1382 Š./24 May 2003), composer, vocalist, and flute player.  Ram started playing the flute in elementary school. By age 12 he was able to play the folk songs of Māzandarān as well as…

RĀMHORMOZ, town and sub-province in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. The town is located at lat 31°16′ N, long 49°36′ E, elev. 587 feet, about 60 miles east of Ahvāz, 70 miles northwest of Behbahān, and 100 miles southeast of Šuštar. The sub-province (šahrestān) has one district (baḵš), and four…

old district encompassing eastern Gilān in the 19th century. It became a part of Lāhijān sub-province (šahrestān) in 1937 and was divided between the sub-provinces of Langarud and Rudsar in the 1960s. When Rudsar was subdivided in 1998 into the two sub-provinces of Amlaš and Rudsar, the name Rānekuh was given…

Raqs: Dozala va Tombak title Raqs: Dozala va Tombak genre/topic Dance language   performer   instrument Dozāla; tombak composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 3:16 source Regional Music of Iran. Hasht Behesht. Mahoor Institute of…

RĀŠED-AL-DIN SENĀN b. Salmān (or Solaymān) b. Moḥammad Abu’l-Ḥasan Baṣri (b. near Basra, 520s/1126-35; d. Kahf, Syria, 589/1193), the greatest of the chief dāʿis of the Nezāri Ismaʿilis in Syria and one of the most prominent figures in their entire history.  Rāšed-al-Din was born into an Imāmi Shiʿite family during…