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SEMINO, Barthélémy (b. Nice, France, 19 November 1797; d. Izmir, Turkey, 14 July 1852), French general, engineer, and linguist in the service of the Qajars in Persia. He was born to a French mother and Sardinian father in Nice, due to the fact that his father was the consul from…

SEPEHRI, Sohrab (Sohrāb Sepehri, b. Qom, 14 Mehr 1307 Š/6 October 1928; d. Tehran, 1 Ordibehešt 1359 Š./21 April 1980), notable poet and painter (FIGURE 1). Life. The third of five children, Sohrab was born to Māhjabin (Foruḡ Irān, d. 1994) and Asad-Allāh (d. 1962) Sepehri (Paridoḵt Sepehri, 2001, p….

SERĀJ al-AḴBĀR-e AFḠĀNIYA, “Torch of the news of Afghanistan,” bi-monthly Persian language newspaper published in Kabul during the second decade of the reign of Amir Ḥabib-Allāh (r. 1901-19). Preceded by two short-lived publications, Šams al-nahār (1873) and Serāj al-aḵbār-eAfḡānestān (1906) (Āhang, 1970, pp. 1-43), this important periodical launched the development…

ŠERVĀN (ŠIRVĀN, ŠARVĀN), a region of Eastern Transcaucasia, known by this name in both early Islamic and more recent times, and now (since 1994) substantially within the independent Azerbaijan Republic, being bounded by the Islamic Republic of Iran on the south, the independent Armenian Republic on the west, and Daghestan…

ŠERVĀNŠAHS (Šarvānšāhs), the various lines of rulers, originally Arab in ethnos but speedily Persianized within their culturally Persian environment, who ruled in the eastern Caucasian region of Šervān from mid-ʿAbbasid times until the age of the Safavids. The title itself probably dates back to pre-Islamic times, since Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh, (pp. 17-18)…

SEVRUGUIN, Antoin, Armenian–Iranian photographer (b. Tehran, late 1830s; d. Tehran, 1933). Though a Russian subject, he lived most of his life in Persia. He is mentioned as a photographer of some repute in the travel literature of late nineteenth-century Persia, and his name appears in a variety of forms including:…

Šeydā, the pen name of Mirzā ʿAli-Akbar Širāzi (b. Shiraz, 1259/1843; d. Tehran at the Ṣafi ʿAlišāh ḵānaqāh, 1324/1906), a Persian musician regarded as the most important composer of the lyrical popular song (taṣnif) in the late Qajar period. He was also a composer of ḡazals, a calligrapher, a singer,…

Šeyḵ Amiri Suite title Šeyḵ Amiri Suite genre/topic Naḡme language   performer Nur ʿAli Elāhi instrument Tanbur composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording Tehran date of recording 1964-1972 duration 4:53 source Tanbur solo. Ostād Nur ʿAli Elāhi 5. Mahoor Institute of…

Šeyḵāni-Asuri title Šeyḵāni-Asuri genre/topic Assyrian Dance language   performer   instrument Strings, bālābān, drums composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 3:10  source Šād-bāš. Music from Iranian Folk Dance. Mahoor Institute of Culture and Art, 1995…

SHADDADIDS (Šaddādiya), Caucasian dynasty of Kurdish origin reigning from about 950 until 1200, first in Dvin and Ganja, later in Ani. The study of Shaddadid history is hindered by the paucity of primary sources.  The only work specifically devoted to this dynasty is the anonymous Taʾriḵ Bāb al-abwāb, passages of…

SHADMAN (ŠĀDMĀN), Sayyed Faḵr-al-Din (b. Tehran, 1286 Š./1907; d. London, 4 Šahrivar1346 Š./26 August 1967), cultural critic and writer of fiction, professor of history, civil servant, and cabinet minister. Shadman came from a family with a tradition of religious learning. His father, Hājj Sayyed Abu-Torāb (d. Tehran, 1949), was a…

SHAHBAZ, Hasan (Ḥasan Šahbāz; b. Bābol, 13 March 1921; d. Los Angeles, 7 May 2007), writer, journalist, and translator (FIGURE 1). His father, Ḥosayn Šahbāziān Māzandarāni, was born and raised in Baku and being fluent in Russian, worked for various Russian companies operating in Iran, most notably as a clerk…

SHAHID SALESS, Sohrab (Sohrāb Šahid-Ṯāleṯ; b. Tehran, 28 June 1944; d. Chicago, 2 July 1998), Iranian cinematographer and award-winning filmmaker. Born in Tehran to a middle class family, Shahid Saless was a storyteller as a child, with a passion for visualizing his narrations. During his teenage years, he showed an…

SHAHRYAR, MOHAMMAD HOSAYN (Moḥammad Ḥosayn Behjat Tabrizi; b. Tabriz, Šahrivar 1285 Š./August 1906; d. Tehran, 27 Šahrivar 1367 Š./18 September 1988), outstanding, prolific contemporary poet (Figure 1, Figure 2). LIFE Shahryar was the son of Sayyed Esmāʾil, known as Mir Āqā (d. 1934), a calligrapher and erudite man (Zāhedi, p….