Explore Iranica

SUVASHUN (Suvašun 1969, tr. M. R. Ghanoonparvar, Savushun, A Novel About Modern Iran, 1990; and Roxane Zand, A Persian Requiem, 1991, FIGURE 1), the most acclaimed novel of the prominent writer Simin Daneshvar (b. Shiraz, 1921, d. Tehran, 2012), and the first novel in Persian written by an Iranian female fiction writer….

SUYĀB, now called Ak-Beshim, the site of an important city on the Silk Road, located 60 km to the east of the city of Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. The city was founded most probably by the Sogdians in the 6th century C.E. Located on the eastern frontier of a region culturally…

i. Persian Art Collections ii. Swedish Officers in Persia, 1911-15 iii. Swedish Archeological Mission to Iran iv. Iranian Community

SWEDEN i. PERSIAN ART COLLECTIONS Persian art collections in Sweden contain items from the prehistoric period (3600 BCE) to the 19th century. The first artifacts of possibly Iranian origin were brought by Vikings (or Rus), who traveled to the shores of the Caspian and there met with merchants from Iran….

SWEDEN ii. SWEDISH OFFICERS IN PERSIA, 1911-15 At the beginning of the 20th century, the central government of Persia was in an enfeebled state. After the beginning of the Constitutional Revolution in 1906 and subsequent unrest, only a shadow remained of Persia’s military and police forces. This power vacuum led…

SWEDEN iii. SWEDISH ARCHEOLOGICAL MISSIONS TO IRAN Scholarly contacts between Sweden and Iran have been somewhat limited though not insignificant. Already in the 17th century, the early Swedish travelers Bengt Oxenstierna and Nils Matson Kiöping visited, among other places, Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam. The missions of the Swedish emissary, of…

SWEDEN iv. Iranian Community This sub-entry will discuss the following topics: formation of the Iranian community (immigration), demographic profile and geographic distribution, economic, social, cultural and political life, and finally, return to Iran or emigration to other countries. Formation of the Iranian community (immigration) In 1976, a year before the…

SYKES, Ella Constance (b. Stoke Damerel, Devon, England, 11 November 1863; d. London, 23 March 1939), traveler and writer who wrote about Iran. Ella was the eldest child of the Rev. William Sykes, chaplain to British forces, and the sister of Percy M. Sykes. She was educated at Plymouth high…

SYKES, Sir Percy Molesworth (b. Canterbury, England, 28 February 1867; d. London, 11 June 1945), soldier, diplomat, traveler, and writer who wrote extensively on Iran. He was the only son of the Rev. William Sykes, chaplain for British forces, and brother of Ella Sykes. Born into a family that had…

SYNGUÉ SABUR: PIERRE DE PATIENCE (Paris, 2008; translated into English by Polly McLean as The Patience Stone, New York, 2009; Figure 1), a highly acclaimed novella in French by Atiq Rahimi (ʿAtiq Raḥimi; b. Kabul, 1962), the Afghan writer and director. It was awarded the Prix de l‘Academie de Goncourt,…

SYRIAC LANGUAGE Syriac, the slightly archaizing Eastern Aramaic dialect of the city of Edessa (Orhāy, ar-Ruhā, Urfa), is the most important Aramaic dialect used by Christians. It is the earliest and basic language of Oriental Christianity and was spoken by the large number of Christians living under Sasanian rule. The…

SYRIAC LANGUAGE iii. Syriac Translators as the Medium for Transmission of Greek Ideas to Sasanian Iran In 2005, Sebastian Brock wrote: “From the second century AD until the ninth century, there was an impressive number of translations from Greek to Syriac” (Brock, p. 11).  Syriac scholars were the intermediaries in…

SYRIAC LANGUAGE. Syriac, originally the eastern Aramaic dialect of the city of Edessa, became the most important language spoken and written by Christian communities during the Sasanian era from Egypt and Asia Minor to Syria, Iran, and Mesopotamia. Syriac is attested from the first century CE, and flourished from the…

SYRIAC LANGUAGE ii. SYRIAC WRITINGS ON PRE-ISLAMIC IRAN The Syriac works which provide information about pre-Islamic Iran can be divided into several groups. We must first rule out the literary works as such, the content of which is mainly theological, philosophical, or exegetic: great authors such as Aphraates, Ephrem, Narsaï,…

S ENTRIES: CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS online entry caption text ṢABĀ, ABU’l-ḤASAN Figure 1. Abu’l-Ḥasan Ṣabā. ṢABĀ, ABU’l-ḤASAN Figure 2. Abu’l-Ḥasan Ṣabā. SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST Figure 1. Transliteration of consonants, nos. 1-17 (SBE I, p. li). SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST Figure 2. Transliteration of consonants, nos. 18-37 (SBE…