i. General Pre-Islamic Iran. Bathhouses existed prior to the Islamic period in the Iranian cultural area. However, their number seems…

i. In Iran The history and evolution of production.The almost exclusive use of wood and charcoal as energy sources hampered…

Although copper is mentioned in geographical texts much less often than the precious metals, it appears to have been mined…

ii. In the Islamic Republic of Iran Islamic banking is based on the principle of profit-earning on equity participation, the…

KORSI, an Arabic loanword in Persian, originally borrowed from Aramaic (Syriac form kurseyāʾ, connected with Akkadian kussū and Sumerian guza;…

STRUYS, JAN JANSZOON, 17th-century Dutch sailor and sail maker, whose account of his various travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia,…

SCHLIMMER, JOHANNES LODEWIK (b. Rotterdam, 22 August 1818; d. Tehran, 25 March 1876), a Dutch physician who served in Iran…

NETHERLANDS : Archives The main sources for Iran, the Persian Gulf and the Dutch-Persian relations are found in the Dutch National…

ḴĀLKUBI (or ḵāl kubidan, kabud zadan “tattooing”), that is, making a permanent mark on the skin by inserting a pigment,…

ḴAZINADĀR (or ḵezānadār; also ḵāzen, pl. ḵozzān), title of the royal treasurer since the early Islamic period. The title Moʾnes-al-Ḵāzen,…

CARPETS xii. Pahlavi Period Throughout the 14th/20th century carpet manufacturing has been, from the point of view of both employment…

BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI iv. From the Mongols to the Abolition of Slavery 1. The Il-khanid, Timurid, Safavid, and Zand periods…

COMMERCE vi. In the Safavid and Qajar periods Commerce under the Safavids, Afsharids, and Zands (907-1209/1501-1794) At about the same…

BAZAR ii. Organization and Function 1. Rural market. Both weekly market days and regular fairs occurred in pre-Islamic times. Among…

FISCAL SYSTEM iv. SAFAVID AND QAJAR PERIODS The Safavid shah’s fiscal prerogatives were expressed by terms like bājgoḏār, bājsetān, and…

ḴELʿAT (Ar. ḵelʿa, pl. ḵelaʿ; or ḵalʿat), an Arabic term used in the Iranian cultural area (Iran, India, Central Asia)…

DUTCH-PERSIAN RELATIONS, from the 16th century to the present, encompassing commercial, political, and cultural contacts, including Persian studies in the…

DUNG, human and animal excrement (pehen, pehīn “cow, horse dung,” sargīn “cow dung” [for etymology, see Emmerick], peškel “sheep, goat…

DOḴĀNĪYĀT (tobacco projects), referring to the State tobacco-monopoly law (Qānūn-e enḥeṣār-e dawlatī-e doḵānīyāt) of 29 Esfand 1307/20 March 1909 and…

DEBRUIN (or de Bruyn), CORNELIS, also known as Corneille Le Brun or Le Bruyn (b. the Hague 1652, d. Utrecht…

CUSTOMS DUTIES (bāj-e rāh, rāh-dārī), a tax levied on the movement of trade. Pre-Islamic Persia. There are no data available…

ČOPOQ, ČEPOQ (< Turk. čobuq < Pers. čūbak “wood” < Mid. Pers. čōbag “wand, arrowshaft,” čōb “wood, stick”), a long-stemmed…

COINS AND COINAGE (Arabo-Pers. sekka, سکّه), standardized units of metal used as a medium of exchange, first introduced into Persia…

CLOCKS (Pers. sāʿat), devices for measuring and registering time. Early time-keeping devices. The sundial (sāʿat-e āftābī, sāʿat-e šamsī) was already…

CHARCOAL (ḏoḡāl-e čūb, zoḡāl-e čūb), car­bonized wood and other vegetal material, an important household and industrial fuel in Persia and…

ČERĪK (also jerīk, from Mongol tserig “warrior[s]”), originally troops sent by an individual or camp (yort) to serve in the…

LUṬI, also luti (pl. alvāṭ), has a variety of meanings. The term was first mentioned by the tenth-century poet Kesāʾi,…

ČĀPĀR (or čapar < Turk. čapmak “to gallop”), post rider. Although the term čāpār was already used in this sense…

ČĀP “print, printing,” a Persian word probably derived from Hindi chāpnā, “to print” (see Turner, no. 4994; cf. the terms…

ČAK, (< Middle Pers. čak “document”; Mādayān,pt. 1, 73.14, 74.3), legal document, testament, money draft, check. The Middle Persian word…

BONĪČA, a tax assessed on a group as a single unit and particularly the base on which the tax was…

BLOODLETTING (Ar.-Pers. ḥejāmat, faṣd; Pers. ragzanī, ḵūn gereftan), a common medical treatment throughout Iranian history, though applied only in exceptional…

BĪMA (bīme), insurance, a word probably of Indian origin that seems to have been used for the first time in…

JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SYSTEMS v. Judicial System in the 20th Century Twentieth-century Iran experienced dramatic changes to its judicial system…

JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SYSTEMS iv. Judicial System from the Advent of Islam Through the 19th Century This sub-entry is divided…

ISFAHAN xii. BAZAAR: PLAN AND FUNCTION The bazaar (see BĀZĀR) of Isfahan is one of the best-preserved examples of the…

Hormuz fell to the Arabs in 650-51. In the 10th century, the town of Hormuz was the chief port for…

GIFT GIVING v. In the Qajar Period The act of giving has not been an incidental, but rather a structural,…

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, administration and ministry. Under the Safavids (1501-1736) there was no special bureaucratic institution designated to deal with foreign…

WOOL (Pers. pašm), the fiber that was the earliest to be used for the making of textiles in Persia. Archeological…

TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN IRAN. Textile production in Iran dates back to the 10th millennium BCE, and much of the output…

STEEL INDUSTRY IN IRAN. In 1927, plans were drawn up to establish smelting works in the north of the country…

PAPER ii. Paper and Papermaking PAPER AND PAPERMAKING (kāḡaḏ wa kāḡaḏ-sāzi/kāḡaḏgari), a survey of the paper industry in Iran in…

OLIVE TREE (zaytun). The cultivated olive tree (Olea europaea L, Oleaceae) is a long-lived, evergreen tree native to the Mediterranean…

LIGHTING EQUIPMENT AND HEATING FUEL Before the widespread use of electricity in Iran, the main illuminants were vegetable oils and…

BRICKS AND CERAMICS INDUSTRY IN IRAN. Iran is rich in clay, marl, feldspar, silicate, limestone, gypsum, bentonite, talc, kaolin, quartz,…

SOAP. Soap was manufactured in Persia from antiquity (for some observations on the etymology of the word ṣābun under which…

ṢADR, Arabic term (“chest, breast, bosom, foremost”; plur. ṣodur) used in the Iranian lands mainly to denote an outstanding person…

MINING IN IRAN ii. MINERAL INDUSTRIES Iran is rich in mineral resources, but until recent times no systematic geological survey…

ḴĀṢṢA, an Arabic term that in the early Muslim period as well as later denoted people and things that were…

GLASS INDUSTRY. Glass making has been known and practiced in Iran for about 3,500 years. Until about 1930 local glass…

SAQQĀ-ḴĀNA HISTORY, term referring to public water dispensers. Public water dispensers were, and in some places still are, a feature…

TOBACCO MODES OF USE, CULTIVATION AND CULTURAL CONNOTATIONS Tobacco reached Persia around 1600 (see Floor 2002). Persian sources imply that…

SUGAR CULTIVATION, MANUFACTURING AND PROCESSING The production and processing of sugar (NPers. šekar, from Skt. ṡárkarā-, “ground or candied sugar,”…

ḴᵛĀNSĀLĀR, title by which the supervisor and other workers of the kitchen department of the royal palace were known in…

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY To sustain its economic development Iran requires construction materials of all kinds. These include cement, lime, plaster,…

ḴELʿAT (Ar. ḵelʿa, pl. ḵelaʿ), an Arabic term used in the Iranian cultural area (Iran, India, Central Asia) to refer…

KALĀNTAR, comparative of kalān (big, great), the term used to denote a chief or leader; synonyms are pišvā and moqaddam….

TANNING, RUBBER, AND FOOTWEAR INDUSTRIES IN IRAN. Tanning was an economic activity traditionally practiced all over Iran, not only in…

OMAN, SEA OF, the sea, or gulf, which divides Iran and the Arabian peninsula and forms the link between the…

BĀRŪT (also bārūṭ and bārūd) “gunpowder” is a loanword from Arabic; it passed from Turkish into Persian usage. This is…

BĀJ, a term denoting tribute to be paid by vassals to their overlord, in which sense it is also used…

BAHRA, a term meaning “share,” “gain,” or “profit,” used within the economic context of Islamic Iran to mean “return on…

ʿAWĀREŻ, term used since 4th/10th century to denote extraordinary imposts of various kinds, the nature of which differed per area…

AṢNĀF, the plural of ṣenf (class, kind category), collective designation of guilds in Iran since the 11th/17th century. Historically the…

CONCESSIONS (emtīāzāt), grants by a state to citizens, aliens, or other states of rights to carry out specific economic activities…

KADḴODĀ, principal meaning “headman,” from Middle Persian kadag-xwadāy, lit. “head of a household, master of the house” (MacKenzie, p. 48;…

COBALT (sang-e lājavard “blue stone,” also ap­plied to lapis lazuli and ultramarine; lājavard-e kāšī “ceramic blue”; lājavard-e solaymānī “Solaymān blue”),…

COAL (zoḡāl-e sang), carbonized organic material used as a solid fuel. Although Persia and Afghanistan are rich in coal deposits…

ČARM (Av. čarəman-, OPers. čarman-, Khot. tcārman-, etc.; see Bailey, Dictionary, p. 140), skin, hide, and leather, which have had…