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STRUYS, JAN JANSZOON, 17th-century Dutch sailor and sail maker, whose account of his various travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, first published in 1676, has been translated into several languages.  He was born about 1630 either in Wormer  or Durgerdam (Struys, 1676, p. 367) in the Zaan district of the…

STUCCO DECORATION IN IRANIAN ARCHITECTURE. Stucco (plaster, painted plaster, gačbori), a versatile medium of decoration, though not unknown in earlier periods in Persia, was widely used from the Parthian until the late Qajar periods in all types of architecture (see GAČ-BORĪ). This entry focuses on the Parthian and Sasanian periods…

STŪM (Av. staoma-, MPers. stūm, satūm, stum, Pers. satumi, Guj. astam) “(ritual of) praise” in Zoroastrianism, in  serving as a means of commemorating the mortal soul (Av. uruuan-, MPers. ruwān, Pers. and Gujerati ravān) and the immortal spirit (Av. frauuaṣ̌i-, MPers. frawahr, Guj. farōhar) of each Zoroastrian (Figure 1). It…

SŪDGAR NASK and WARŠTMĀNSR NASK, the first and second of three commentaries on the Old Avesta (the five Gāthās [Gāθās] and Yasna haptaŋhāiti), extant in a Pahlavi resume in book nine of the Dēnkard, the third being the Bag nask. They are three of the 21 nasks (parts of the…

SUGAR CULTIVATION, MANUFACTURING AND PROCESSING The production and processing of sugar (NPers. šekar, from Skt. ṡárkarā-, “ground or candied sugar,” originally “grit, gravel”) was already known in Sasanian Persia around 460 CE, and the Chinese ascribed the invention of the process of the refining of sugar syrup into hard sugar…

SULEDEH (also Suldeh, Suladeh), Caspian township and former sub-province in Māzandarān province. An early mention of Suledeh is in 1859 report of Charles Francis Mackenzie, who describes it as a large village with 200 houses, 20 shops, two bathhouses, and a three-span bridge, built by Mirzā Āqā Khan Nuri (1807-65;…

ŠUR (شور), a modal system (dastgāh) in the traditional music in Iran. Technical description. In the learned musical tradition established around the middle of the 19th century, the study of the radif started with Šur, since it was considered as the most important of the twelve modal systems (dastgāhs and āvāzs). …

SŪR SAXWAN (Banquet Speech), a Middle Persian text about a court banquet held in the Sasanian Empire (Cereti, p. 181; Macuch, 2009, p. 168). The mention of three generals (spāhbeds), the three quadrants introduced with the military reforms of King Kawād and his son Ḵosrow I, suggests that the text…

SUSA the chief city of ancient Elam and one of the capital cities of the Achaemenid empire. i. Excavations. ii. History during the Elamite period. iii. The Achaemenid period. iv. The Hellenistic and Parthian period. v. The Sasanian period.

SUSA i. EXCAVATIONS The excavations of ancient Susa, whose ruins document more than 5,000 years of settlement, themselves have a long history, similar to those of the great Mesopotamian centers of Uruk, Nippur, Babylon, and Nineveh. From the mid-19th century, explorers replaced travelers, and a new stage thus was reached…

SUSA ii. HISTORY OF SUSA DURING THE ELAMITE PERIOD Introduction. The research carried out on the site of Susa for more than a century has yielded a wealth of archeological and epigraphic material. For the most part, it is published in the 51 volumes of the Mémoires de la Délégation…

SUSA iii. THE ACHAEMENID PERIOD The date of 539 BCE, which is traditionally held to be the beginning of the Achaemenid period at Susa, refers to the capture of Babylon, as it is supposed that Cyrus II conquered Susa after he took Babylon (Herodotus, 1.190-91; Strabo, 15.3.2). The history of…

SUSA iv. The Hellenistic and Parthian Periods Susa is best known because of its role in the Elamite and Achaemenid periods, but the town remained a major urban center until the Islamic period. SUSA AT THE TIME OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT Alexander the Great visited Susa twice, on the outbound…

SUSA v. THE SASANIAN PERIOD Literary sources. The data on literary sources regarding Susa (Šuš) in the Sasanian period have been compiled by Arthur Christensen (q.v.) in 1944 and augmented by the contributors to the Cambridge History of Iran (Vol.III). Roman Ghirshman (q.v.) based his account (Ghirshman, 1962) mainly on…