ABU’L-ḤASAN MOSTAWFĪ, painter and historian of the 12th/18th century from Kāšān, son of Mīrzā Moʿezz-al-dīn Moḥammad Ḡaffārī. Under Karīm Khan…

ʿAKKĀS-BĀŠĪ, EBRĀHĪM (family name later, Moṣawwer Raḥmānī), photographer and pioneer motion-picture cameraman, b. Raǰab, 1291/August, 1874, d. 1333/1915. Mīrzā Ebrāhīm’s…

AMĪN-AL-DAWLA, ABŪ ṬĀLEB FARROḴ KHAN ḠAFFĀRĪ (1227-88/1812-71), a high ranking Qajar official. He was the great grandson of Qāżī Moʿezz-al-dīn…

AMĪN(-E) ḴALWAT (Trustee of the Shah’s private household or court), an office and title in the late Qajar period held…

BAḴTAK, a folkloric she-creature of horrible shape, personifying a nightmare. Baḵtak was believed to have been one of Alexander’s slave…

BAQQĀL-BĀZĪ (lit. grocer play), a form of improvised, popular slapstick comedy, the origins of which can be traced to buffoons…

CINEMA i. History of Cinema in Persia The beginnings. On 7 Rabīʿ I 1318/8 June 1900, during his first trip…

DALQAK, buffoon, court jester, also sometimes known as masḵara. The earliest extant study of buf­foons is that of Athenaeus (bks….

ĀQĀ TABRĪZĪ, MĪRZĀ, 19th-century civil servant and writer, whose chief claim to notice is the authorship of four comedies for…