ELTON, Captain JOHN (?-1751), English merchant, seaman and shipbuilder for Nāder Shah Afšār. From 1734 onward the British merchants of…

BRYDGES, Sir HARFORD JONES (1764-1847), English diplomat and author, ambassador to the court of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qājār from 1807 to…

ZAND DYNASTY (1164-1209/1751-94), a dynasty that ruled in Persia (excluding Khorasan) from Shiraz, from the time when Nāder Shah’s (r….

ŠĀH-NĀMA v. ARABIC WORDS It is well known that the Šāh-nāma has comparatively few Arabic loanwords. Most commentators claim casually,…

DARKE, Hubert Seymour Garland (b. London, 8 May 1919, d. Cambridge, 6 February 1998), teacher and scholar of Persian, Lecturer…

WAKIL-AL-RAʿĀYĀ, well known regional title assumed by Karim Khan Zand (r. 1164-93/1751-79) after he established himself at Shiraz in 1179/1765….

TAJIK ii. TAJIKI PERSIAN Tajik Persian (self-designation [zabon-i] tojik,tojikī, forsī-i tojikī; also called Tajiki, Tojiki, Tadzhik) is the variety of…

TAJIK i. THE ETHNONYM: ORIGINS AND APPLICATION Modern usage. The Tajiks are an Iranian people, speaking a variety of Persian,…