KHUJAND (Ḵojand), a city in northwestern Tajikistan located on the middle course of the Syr Daryā River, about 150 km…

The dominant theme of works on the modern history of the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, where they form a significant portion of the population, is the struggle…

HUNGARY ii. Iranian and Persian Studies in Hungary Iranian and Persian studies may be said to have had their beginnings…

RAḤIMZĀDA, BĀQI (Boqī Rahimzoda in Tajik orthography; b. Sorboḡi, 15 May 1910; d. Dushanbe, 30 January 1980), Tajik poet who…

WĀṢEFI, ZAYN-AL-DIN MAḤMUD (زین الدین محمود واصفی, b. Herat, 890/1485; d. between 1551 and 1566), Persian memoirist, historian, and poet….

SAVDO (Sawdā), ABDULQODIRHOJAI (ʿAbd-al-Qāder Ḵˇāja; عبدالقادر خواجه سودا, b., Bukhara, 1823-24; d. 1873: drowned in the Vaḵšāb River and buried…

MONẒEM, Mirzā ʿAbd-al-Wāḥed (Tajik: Mirzo Abdulvohidi Munzim; b. Bukhara, 1875 or 1877; d. Stalinabad [Dushanbe], 4 March 1934), Tajik poet,…

NIĀZI, FĀTEḤ (Foteh Niyozī in Tajik orthography; b. Samarqand, 18 April 1914; d. Dushanbe, 1991), Tajik prose writer. Fāteḥ Niāzi…

ROMANIAN-IRANIAN RELATIONS.  Significant, sustained relations between Romania and Iran belong to the second half of the 20th century. They owed…

ULUḠZĀDA, SĀTIM (Sotim Uluḡzoda in Tajik orthography; b. 1 September 1911 in the village of Varzik, in present-day Uzbekistan; d….

LĀYEQ ŠĒR-ʿALI (Taj. Loiq Šeralī, known professionally as Loiq/Lāyeq), Tajik poet (b. Mazār-e Šarif, in the region of Panjakent, 20…

MIRŠAKAR, MIRSAID (Mir-sayyed; b. Sindev, 5 May 1912; d. Dushanbe, 1993). Tajik poet, dramatist, and children’s author; People’s Poet of Tajikistan, 1962. Miršakar…

KARIM DEVONA, pen-name of Abdul-Karim Qurbon, Tajik folk poet (b. in the village of Jūraki Hisor, in present-day Tajikistan, in…

NALÎ (Pers. Nāli), the pen-name of Mela Khidrî Ehmedî Šaweysî Mikâʾîlî (b. Ḵāk o ḵol, 1797 or 1800; d. Istanbul,…

PÎREMÊRD (Pers. Piremard “old man”; b. Solaymāniya, 1867; d. Solaymāniya, 19 June 1950), pen-name of Tawfiq, son of Maḥmud, son…

CENTRAL ASIA xv. Modern Literature Central Asian literatures in the twentieth century have developed under diverse influences. Beside classical and…

FICTION ii(h). IN TAJIKISTAN Tajik fiction in the 20th century has drawn from a variety of sources. Classical and modern…

iii. Shi’ite. iv. Yasidi and Ahl-e Haqq. v. Kurdish (Sunni).   iii. SHIʿITE Shiʿite festivals mark important occasions in Shiʿite…

EREKLEII, king of Kakheti, 1744-62, and king of Kartli-Kakheti in Caucasus, 1762-98 (b. 1720, or, according to Toumanoff, 7 October…

SOLAYMĀNI, Ātajān Peyrow (Tajik Otajon Payrav Sulaymoni; b. Bukhara, 15 April 1899; d. Samarqand, 9 June 1933), Tajik poet who…

GEORGIA i. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE Located at the eastern tip of the Black Sea to the south of…

JAGARḴWIN (or Cegerxwin), pseudonym of Şêxmûs Hesen (b. 1903, d. Stockholm, 22 October 1984), considered by many the leading Kurdish…

ḤOḎEQ (ḤĀḎEQ), JUNAYDOLLO (JONAYD-ALLĀH) MAḴDUM, Tajik poet (b. Herat, mid-1780s; killed Šahr-e Sabz in Uzbekistan, 14 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1258/15 January 1843)….

HAŽĀR, the pen name of ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN ŠARAFKANDI (b. Mahābād, 1921; d. Tehran, 1 Esfand 1369 Š./21 February 1991; Figure 1),…

GORĀN, ʿABD-ALLĀH SOLAYMĀN (1904-62), the leading Kurdish poet of the twentieth century. Born in Ḥalabja, in northeastern Iraq, Gorān received…

GEORGIA vi. IRANIAN STUDIES AND COLLECTIONS IN GEORGIA The institutional foundations of Iranian studies in Georgia were laid after the…

GEORGIA ii. HISTORY OF IRANIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS Between the Achaemenid era and the beginning of the 19th century, Persia played a…

SAIIDO NASAFI, MIROBID (Mir ʿĀbed Sayyedā Nasafi), Tajik poet (b. Nasaf, present-day Qarshi, ca. late 1740s; d. Bukhara, between 1707…

SODIQI MUNŠI, Mirzo, Tajik poet (b. between 1753 and 1758 in the village of Jondori Bukhara; d. 20 October 1819…

MUSHFIQI, ABDURAHMON (Mošfeqi, ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān), Tajik poet (b. Bukhara, ca. 1525; d. Bukhara, 1588). Little is known about his life. Orphaned…

MUHAMMADIEV,Fazliddin, Tajik writer (b. Samarkand, 15 June 1928, d. Dushanbe, 6 October 1986). Born into a family of modest circumstances,…

MAWLAWI, ʿAbd-al-Raḥim Maʿdumi (b. 1806, d. near Ḥalabja, 1882-83), a leading Kurdish poet of the 19th century who wrote in…

KHUJAND (Ḵojand), a city in northwestern Tajikistan located on the middle course of the Syr Daryā River, about 150 km…