CHRONICLE OF ARBELA
Peter Kawerau
a Syriac church history of Adiabene, written in the 6th century by Mĕšīḥā-Zĕḵā. A remarkable account from the Parthian period is that of the Feast of the Magi in the month of Iyyār. Equally noteworthy is the account of the fall of the Arsacids and the beginning of the reign of the Sasanians in 224.
This Article Has Images/Tables.BAND-E AMĪR (2)
X. De Planhol
the chain of natural lakes 90 km west of Bāmīān in Afghanistan (lat 30°12’ N, long 66°30’ E).
BAṬṬAI YAZDĀNĪ
W. Madelung
the 5th-century founder or reformer of the Kantheans, a sect related to the Mandeans.
ʿADL, MOṢṬAFĀ
Bāqer ʿĀqeli
In 1945, as the head of the Iranian delegation in San Francisco, ʿAdl gave a persuasive lecture arguing for de-occupation of Iran and ayment of reparations for damage caused by the war. He attended the assembly of the United Nations, and struggled for the recognition of the rights of Iran and her territorial integrity.
This Article Has Images/Tables.ASADĀBĀD
D. Balland
(or ASʿADĀBĀD), the official name of a small town in eastern Afghanistan, capital of Konar (Kunar) Province.
NEY-DĀWUD, Morteżā
Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi
(1900-1990), celebrated composer of music and performer and instructor of the tār (a plucked, long-necked lute).
HAMADĀN iii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
Xavier de Planhol
The city of Hamadān lies at the extreme northwest of the series of major urban sites stretching along the line of contact between the Zagros range and the central plateau.
ʿABD-AL-BAHĀʾ
A. Bausani, D. MacEoin
epithet assumed by ʿAbbās Effendi, the eldest son of Bahāʾallāh, founder of the Bahaʾi movement. The epithet means “servant of the glory of God” or “servant of Bahāʾallāh.”
GAIL, MARZIEH
Wendy Heller
(1908-1993), Persian-American Bahaʾi author, essayist, and translator; child of the first Persian-American Bahaʾi marriage, and the first woman to work at a newspaper in Tehran.
This Article Has Images/Tables.FICTION, ii(f)
Houra Yavari
ii(f). BY PERSIANS IN NON-PERSIAN LANGUAGES. Persian fiction is not limited to works written in the Persian language, or to works written within the geographical boundaries of Persia herself.
ḠANĪ, QĀSEM
Abbas Milani
Qasem Gani was a prolific writer and, during his many years abroad, corresponded with several eminent figures of the time. His diaries, notebooks, and letters have been compiled and edited in twelve volumes under the general supervision of his son, Cyrus Ghani.
This Article Has Images/Tables.ʿABDALLĀH
L. Mackie
Name appearing on four diverse, high-quality silks of the first half of the 17th century.
ALBUQUERQUE, ALFONSO DE
J. Aubin
(ca. 1460-1515), admiral in the Indian Ocean (1504, 1506-08), second governor of Portuguese India (1509-15), a great conqueror, and the real founder of the Portuguese empire in the Orient.
ʿABDALLĀH HERAVĪ
P. P. Soucek
Calligrapher active in Herat, Samarqand, and Mashad (mid-15th century).
GILANENTZ CHRONICLE
Ina Baghdiantz McCabe
a compendium of reports collated as a journal by Petros di Sarkis Gilanentz (Gilanencʿ), which constitutes an important source for the history of events in Transcaucasia and Persia during the period March 1722 to August 1723, notably the Afghan invasion and siege of Isfahan.
CLAVIJO, RUY GONZÁLEZ DE
Beatrice Forbes Manz and Margaret L. Dunaway
(d. 2 April 1412), ambassador from King Henry III of Castile and Leon to Tīmūr in the years 805-08/1403-06 and author of an important travel account.
ACKERMAN, PHYLLIS
Cornelia Montgomery
(b. Oakland, California, 1893; d. Shiraz, 25 January 1977),author, editor, teacher and translator in the fields of Persian textiles, European tapestries, Chinese bronzes, iconography, and symbolism.
MAMIKONEAN FAMILY
Nina Garsoian
the most distinguished family in Early Christian Armenia after the ruling Arsacid house. Their power survived the fall of the dynasty in 428 and began to wane only from the end of the 6th century.
FRANCE vii. FRENCH TRAVELERS IN PERSIA, 1600-1730
Anne-Marie Touzard
While the Italian cities and Spain entered into diplomatic relations with Persia at an early date, this was not true of France, despite an abortive attempt—the dispatch in 1626 of Louis Deshayes de Courmenin to the court of Shah ʿAbbās I. The early 17th century also witnessed the great missionary upsurge in France.
This Article Has Images/Tables.NABIL-AL-DAWLA
Guity Etemad
ʿAliqoli Khan learned English and French at the Dār al-Fonun School and, with his older brother, Ḥosaynqoli Khan Kalāntar, frequented traditional Persian gymnasia, where the latter was converted to the Bahai faith by a wrestler called Ostād Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Kāši, and he in turn led ʿAliqoli Khan into the new faith in about 1895.
This Article Has Images/Tables.Italy ix. PERSIAN ART COLLECTIONS
M. V. Fontana
ix. PERSIAN ART COLLECTIONS Since the Middle Ages, Italians have been some of the greatest collectors of Islamic art in Europe. The Islamic market that Italy drew on was very large, and some of the most opulent works were imported from Persia.
This Article Has Images/Tables.GNOSTICISM
Kurt Rudolph
in Persia. The current academic term gnosticism or gnosis goes back to the early Christian period and has a heresiological background; its representatives were called Gnostics, meaning people who believed in specific “insights” and ways of behavior that deviated from the official church and its teachings and who disseminated their beliefs through their own writings.
HELMAND RIVER iv. IN THE LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES
Arash Khazeni
The late 19th and 20th centuries saw a number of colonial and national schemes, including boundary commisions and large-scale irrigation projects, that aimed to demarcate the Iran-Afghan borderlands.
MOVSĒS XORENAC‘I
Nina Garsoïan
from the later Middle Ages, and down to the present, honored as the “Father of Armenian History” (Patmahayr). According to his own words, he was a pupil of St. Maštoc‘, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, writing in the 5th century CE.
KAJAKAY DAM
Siddieq Noorzoy
dam built on the Helmand River as a part of the multi-faceted projects aimed at the development of the Helmand Valley.
Italy ii. DIPLOMATIC AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
Mario Casari
A privileged relationship between Iran and Italy dates back to the age of the ancient Roman and Persian empires. Despite their ever-changing internal affairs, the two political centers of Europe and Asia, throughout the entire ancient time, experienced long lasting contacts.
This Article Has Images/Tables.ĀBĀDĀN i. History
L. P. Elwell-Sutton
In medieval sources, and up to the present century, the name of the island always occurs in the Arabic form ʿAbbādān; this name has sometimes been derived from ʿabbād “worshiper.”
JESUITS IN SAFAVID PERSIA
Rudi Matthee
The Fathers of the Society of Jesus were the first European missionaries to enter the Persian Gulf in the 16th century.Their pioneer was the Dutchman Gaspar Barzaeus (Berze, 1515-53).
This Article Has Images/Tables.SUSA v. THE SASANIAN PERIOD
G. Gropp
The satrap of Susa (Šuš) had been loyal to the Parthian king Artabanus V, and the city was forcibly conquered by Ardašir (qq.v.) in 224 after his victory over King Šād-Šāpur of Isfahan.
GOLD
Jennifer C. Ross & James W. Allan
Persia possesses a number of gold sources—in the northwest (Azerbaijan and Zanjān), near Kāšān at the western edge of the central plateau, and, according to Strabo, in Kermān. Gold sources in Afghanistan are located in Badaḵšān, which is also the source region for lapis lazuli.
This Article Has Images/Tables.BAHAISM ix. Bahai Temples
V. Rafati and F. Sahba
Although the faith originated in Iran, no Bahai temple was ever built in that country, due to local antagonism. However, since the time of Bahāʾ-Allāh, the Bahais of Iran have gathered in private Bahai homes to pray and to read the writings of the faith.
POPE, ARTHUR UPHAM
Noel Siver
Pope was born on February 7, 1881 in Phenix, Rhode Island where his father Louis Pope was a minister in a local church. He was raised in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Descended from English Puritans who had settled in the Boston area in 1634 Pope remained proud of his New England roots throughout his life.
This Article Has Images/Tables.LĀRAK
Daniel T. Potts
a small island in the Straits of Hormuz to the south of Hormuz Island, located approximately 45 kms southeast of Bandar Abbas and 18 kms southeast of the eastern end of Qeshm Island at lat 26°51′0″N, long 56°21′0″E.
GEORGIA vii. Georgians in the Safavid Administration
Rudi Matthee
Safavid interaction with Georgia and its inhabitants dates from the inception of the state in the early 16th century, when Georgians fought alongside the Qezelbāš in Shah Esmāʿīl I’s arm.
ENTEẒĀM, ʿABD-ALLĀH and NAṢR-ALLĀH
Fakhreddin Azimi
two brothers active in 20th-century Persian politics. ʿAbd-Allāh (1895-1983), as a career diplomat, served in various posts, including minister of foreign affairs. Naṣr-Allāh (1899-1980) held a series of ministerial posts under Moḥammad Reżā Shah, including the ambassadorship to the United States.
This Article Has Images/Tables.STRUYS, JAN JANSZOON
Willem Floor
(1630-1694),Dutch sailor and sail maker, whose account of his various travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, first published in 1676, has been translated into several languages.
GIANTS, THE BOOK OF
Werner Sundermann
a book mentioned as a canonical work of Mani in the Coptic Kephalaia, in the Homilies and Psalms, as well as in the Chinese compendium of Mani’s teachings.
ḴĀLKUBI
Willem Floor
(orḵāl kubidan,kabud zadan“tattooing”), that is, making a permanent mark on the skin by inserting a pigment, is one of the oldest methods of body ornamentation.The earliest evidence of tattoos in the Iranian culture area is the almost completely tattooed body of a Scythian chief in Pazyryk Mound
KALĀNTARI, PARVIZ
Nojan Madinei
(b. Zanjān, 22 March 1931; d. Tehran, 20 May 2016), painter, graphic designer, writer, and a pioneering illustrator of Iranian children’s books.
AFYŪN
S. Shahnavaz
"opium," its production and commerce in Iran.
KĀNUN-E PARVAREŠ-E FEKRI-E KUDAKĀN VA NOWJAVĀNĀN v. Film Production: 1970-77
Fereydoun Moezi Moghadam
Kanun productions were the first experience of film direction for a number of today’s best-known Iranian directors. All internationally recognized Iranian animation film directors started their work at Kanun, and many have continued to cooperate with it.
This Article Has Images/Tables.SPAIN: RELATIONS WITH PERSIA IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES
José Cutillas Ferrer
Spanish-Persian relations trace back to al-Andalos, when the presence of people and cultural materials from Persia reached its highest level.
KALILA WA DEMNA ii. The translation by Abu’l-Maʿāli Naṣr-Allāh Monši
Mahmoud Omidsalar
Naṣr-Allāh’s Persian versionof theKalila wa Dimnais not a translation in the strict sense of the term, but a literary creation in its own right.
ELEMENTS
Mansour Shaki
i. In Zoroastrianism. ii. In Manicheism. iii. In Persian.
KELIM (GELIM)
Sumru Belger Krody
a kind of flat-woven carpet employed by settled and nomadic families for a host of uses, primarily but not exclusively for covering household items and furnishing the interior of dwellings.
This Article Has Images/Tables.IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic (1.2) Manicheism
Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst and Philip G. Kreyenbroek
Called after the founding prophet Mani (216-74 or 277), Manicheism was a syncretistic religion that, combining elements of the various religions current in Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau at the time, claimed to be the ultimate religion.
INDIA iii. RELATIONS: ACHAEMENID PERIOD
Pierfrancesco Callieri
The conquest by Darius I of the territories of the Indian subcontinent west of the Indus for the first time created a clear relationship between India and Iran.
CYRUS iiia. Cyrus II as Portrayed by Xenophon and Herodotus
Robert Faulkner
Xenophon, in his workThe Education of Cyrus, makes Cyrus’s imperial founding the theme of a biography; forHerodotus, that founding dominates only Book 1 of nine parts apparently devoted to the Persian-Greek wars decades later.
DUNHUANG i. The cave sites; Manichean texts
Gunner Mikkelsen
TheMogao Caves are located some 25 km from Dunhuang at the edge of the Dunes of the Singing Sands (Mingshashan) of the Gobi desert. These contain over45,000 square meters of predominantly Buddhist murals and more than 2,000 Buddhist painted stucco sculptures.
This Article Has Images/Tables.JAHĀNGIR
Lisa Balabanlilar
the fourth Mughal emperor, the first of his dynasty to have been born in India (1569-1627).
CARPETS vii. Islamic Persia to the Mongols
Barbara Schimtz
Because of the scarcity of surviving materials it is difficult to separate the history of carpet making in Iran from that of the rest of the Islamic world before the Mongol invasion (656/1258). Furthermore, the kind of rigid distinction between carpet and other textile designs that characterizes later production probably did not exist in the early Islamic period.
This Article Has Images/Tables.SABET, HABIB
Moojan Momen
(1903-1990), Bahai entrepreneur and industrialist, who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Iran in the late Pahlavi period.
ḠAZNĪ
Xavier de Planhol, Roberta Giunta
or Ḡazna, Ḡaznīn; province and city in southeastern Afghanistan. The earliest known monuments of Ḡaznī belong to the Ghaznavid period (366-583/977-1187), the best representative of which are the two minarets standing east of the citadel, close to two large mounds resembling mosques.
This Article Has Images/Tables.BĀZĪ
Fereydūn Vahman
(games). The growing interest in Iranian folklore in recent decades has resulted in the publication of descriptions of many games played in various parts of Iran, often to be found in dialect glossaries.
CARPETS xiv. Tribal Carpets
Siawosch Azadi
In Persia rural carpets have been made in nearly every possible technical variation and for a wide range of uses. Yet there are many nomadic groups whose works are absolutely unknown, and the weavings of other groups have been only very imperfectly studied and described.
This Article Has Images/Tables.PORTUGAL i. RELATIONS WITH PERSIA IN THE EARLY MODERN AGE (1500-1750)
Joao Teles e Cunha
Portuguese-Persian relations had some importance for both countries during the early Modern Age, coinciding with the rise and fall of the Safavids.
MOHASSESS, ARDESHIR
Nicky Nodjoumi
The youngest of four children, Ardeshir was born to ʿAbbās-Qoli and Sorur Mahkāma Moḥaṣṣeṣṣ. His father was a judge and died when Ardeshir was an infant. His mother, an educator and the principal of the first school for girls in Rasht, was a poet and literary figure and a close acquaintance of Parvin Eʿteṣāmi.
This Article Has Images/Tables.BARNĀMA-RĪZĪ
F. Daftary
“planning.” Among the countries of the Middle East Iran has a relatively long history of economic development planning. By the time of the revolution in 1979, five development plans of various durations had been implemented in ran over a thirty-year period.
YOHANNAN, ABRAHAM
Eden Naby & EIr
(1853-1925), Assyrian scholar, philologist, historian, and humanitarian.
This Article Has Images/Tables.OIL INDUSTRY i. PETROLEUM AND ITS PRODUCTS
A. Badakhshan and F. Najmabadi
The first requisite for an oil or a gas field is a reservoir: a rock formation porous enough to contain oil or gas and permeable enough to allow their movement through it.
This Article Has Images/Tables.M~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cross-Reference
list of all the figure and plate images in the letter M entries.
CARPETS i. Introductory survey
Roger Savory
the history of Persian carpet manufacture.
CENSUS ii. In Afghanistan
Daniel Balland
The first national census of Afghanistan was not conducted until 1979, but the idea of such a survey hadalready taken rootduring the reign of Šēr-ʿAlī Khan in the 19th century, due to new taxation regulations.
This Article Has Images/Tables.BARDESANES
P. O. Skjærvø
(Syr. Bar Dayṣān, Ar. Ebn Dayṣān), gnostic thinker (154-222) who occupies a position between the Syriac gnostic systems of the first two centuries A.D. and the Iranian gnostic system of Mani of the third century.
ḤĀJJ SAYYĀḤ
Ali Ferdowsi
(ca. 1836-1925), constitutionalist and human rights activist who pursued democratic political reforms in Persia; the first modern Persian to tour the world, the first to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, wrote the first modernist Persian book of travels and the first modern prison notebook.
This Article Has Images/Tables.ŠĀBUHRAGĀN
Christiane Reck
(Šāpurāḵān, Šāburāḵān, Šāburḵān), one of the books written by Mani (216-274/7 CE), founder of the Manichean religion, in which he summarized his teaching systematically.
EBTEHAJ, ABOLHASSAN
Geoffrey Jones
(1899-1999), prominent banker, economic planner, and one of the most important and powerful figures in the economic history of Iran during the middle decades of the 20th century.
COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY iii. In Manicheism
Werner Sundermann
Manicheism, like contemporary Zoroastrianism and various gnostic sects, offered a detailed cosmogonic myth, or cosmology.
JAPAN ii. Diplomatic and Commercial Relations with Iran
Nobuaki Kondo
Iranian diplomatic contact with Japan is believed to date from1873, when Nāṣer-al-Din Shah, on his first trip to Europe, met Naonobu Sameshima of Satsuma, who was the then Japanese ambassador to Paris, France.
This Article Has Images/Tables.ARMENIA AND IRAN ii. The pre-Islamic period
M. L. Chaumont
under Darius and Xerxes had much narrower boundaries than the future Armenia of the Artaxiads and the Arsacids.
CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS
Maria Macuch; John R. Hinnells, Mary Boyce, and Shahrokh Shahrokh
(MPers. ruwānagān lit. “relating to the soul”), pious endowments to benefit the souls of the dead, as specified by the individual founders. i. In the Sasanian period. ii. Among Zoroastrians in Islamic times.
JUDEO-PERSIAN COMMUNITIES iv. MEDIEVAL TO LATE 18TH CENTURY
Vera Basch Moreen
From ancient times Iranian Jews formed communities in most of the major towns, villages, and regions of the Persianate world. Between the 8th and 10th centuries, Iraq and Iran contained very large and prosperous Jewish populations.
This Article Has Images/Tables.HERAT iv. TOPOGRAPHY AND URBANISM
Maria Szuppe
In the medieval period, Herat, together with Nišāpur, Marv, and Balḵ, was one of the four main urban centers of the eastern Iranian world. In contrast to some other ancient towns, Herat has existed on the same location since its foundation.
This Article Has Images/Tables.FASIH, Esma’il
Ali Ferdowsi
Fasih left Iran in 1956, and eventually ended up in Montana State College in Bozeman, Montana. Beginning with his junior year at the college, he transferred to the University of Montana in Missoula where he earned a BS in Chemistry and a BA in English.
This Article Has Images/Tables.MANICHEISM ii. THE MANICHEAN PANTHEON
Werner Sundermann
In this article, the gods of the Manicheans are considered collectively with regards to their names and functions.
ZOROASTRIANISM i. HISTORICAL REVIEW UP TO THE ARAB CONQUEST
William W. Malandra
This article presents an overview of the history of Zoroastrianism from its beginnings through the 9th and 10th centuries CE. Details of different periods and specific issues relating to Zoroastrianism are discussed in the relevant separate entries.
ARMENO-IRANIAN RELATIONS in the pre-Islamic period
Nina Garsoian
appearance of Armenian literature in the second half of the fifth century CE, in the generation which followed the great revolt of the Armenian nobles in 450 against Yazdgird II’s attempt to re-impose Zoroastrianism on their already Christian country, resulted in its almost total obliteration of Armenia’s ties to the Iranian world.
BAHAISM i. The Faith
J. Cole
Bahaism as a religion had as its background two earlier and much different movements in nineteenth-century Shiʿite Shaikhism (following Shaikh Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī) and Babism.
DEMOGRAPHY
Bernard Hourcade, Daniel Balland
the statistical study of characteristics of human populations. Since World War II Persia, formerly a rural and tribal country dominated by elderly notables and with low population growth, has come to have a majority of young urban dwellers, mostly literate and multiplying rapidly.
This Article Has Images/Tables.MANICHEISM v. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY AND TECHNIQUE
Werner Sundermann
The main primary sources on the beginning of Manichean missionary work are the Cologne Mani Codex and the Kephalaia.
EXCAVATIONS iii. In Central Asia
B. A. LitvinskiĬ
Archeological and architectural monuments of Central Asia are mentioned in reports from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Major archaeological work began only after the Russian conquest of the region; it was first done by amateurs, in particular military officers.
This Article Has Images/Tables.BELLES LETTRES i. SASANIAN IRAN
Werner Sundermann
Belles lettres, that is, entertaining works, are not lacking in Sasanian Iran but can by no means match with their development in New Persian literature, both for quality and quantity.
OIL AGREEMENTS IN IRAN
Parviz Mina
(1901-1978): their history and evolution. The history of Iranian oil agreements began with an unprecedented concession granted by Nāṣer-al-Din Shah in 1872 to Baron Julius de Reuter.
ISRAEL i. RELATIONS WITH IRAN
David Menashri, Trita Parsi
The relationship between Israel and Iran has, since the very inception of the Jewish state in 1948, been a complex function of Iran’s geo-strategic imperatives as a non-Arab, non-Sunni state.
INDIA ix. RELATIONS: QAJAR PERIOD, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Mansour Bonakdarian
The contributions made by various non-Iranian individuals and groups to the constitutional/ nationalist cause in Persia have long been acknowledged in the historiography of the revolution.
SAFAVID DYNASTY (cont.)
Rudi Matthee
Annotated bibliography.
AUSTRIA ii. IRANIAN STUDIES
X. Tremblay and N. Rastegar
The present entry is intended as a synthetic history of the organization of Iranian studies (1) up to 1918 in all the Habsburg “hereditary countries,” which included the present Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, also parts of Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, and (2) since 1918 in the Republic of Austria exclusively.
MANI
Werner Sundermann
the founder of the religion of Manicheism in the 3rd century CE. His life, being the central human subject of Manichean salvation history, necessarily underwent hagiographical stylization.
This Article Has Images/Tables.MANICHEISM i. GENERAL SURVEY
Werner Sundermann
Manicheism is the only world religion that has become completely extinct. Its founder, Mani, lived in the third century CE. His religion spread over the continents from the Atlantic to the Chinese Sea.
ETHNOGRAPHY (Bibliography)
Brian Spooner
For cited works not given in detail, see “Short References.” Priority has been given to coverage of ethnographic data based on long-term participant observation, but other ethnographically significant sources are also listed, including some based on shorter works, some by travelers from before the emergence of professional ethnography, and some from scholars trained in related fields such as folklore, linguistics and cultural geography.
