Table of Contents

  • ĒWĒNBED

    Philippe Gignoux

    lit. "master of manners"; Pahlavi title attested from the 3rd century C.E.

  • EXCAVATIONS

    Multiple Authors

    i. In Persia, ii. In Afghanistan, iii. In Central Asia, iv. In Chinese Turkestan

  • EXCAVATIONS i. In Persia

    David Stronach

    a diachronic survey of the main patterns of archaeological field research in Persia from the time of the first excavations in the middle of the 19th century to the late l990s.

  • EXCAVATIONS ii. In Afghanistan

    Warwick Ball

    Archeological investigation, both excavation and recording of sites and monuments, began in Afghanistan in the early 19th century. Many of the reports were made by travelers and British Indian Army officers; often passing observations.

  • 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.

  • EXCAVATIONS iv. In Chinese Turkestan

    B. A. LitvinskiĬ

    In spite of the large number of published archaeological reports, our knowledge about the archaeology of Chinese Turkestan is still incomplete and full of serious lacunae.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • EXEGESIS

    Multiple Authors

    (Ar. tafsīr), commentary on or interpretation of sacred texts.

  • EXEGESIS i. In Zoroastrianism

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    Zoroastrian exegesis consists basically of the interpretation of the Avesta (q.v.). However, the closest equivalent Iranian concept, zand, generally includes Pahlavi texts which were believed to derive from commentaries upon Avestan scripture, but whose extant form contains no Avestan passages.

  • EXEGESIS ii. In Shiʿism

    Meir M. Bar-Asher

    Shiʿite exegetes, perhaps even more than their Sunni counterparts, support their distinctive views by reference to Koranic proof-texts.

  • EXEGESIS iii. In Persian

    Annabel Keeler

    The writing of commentaries on the Koran in Persian seems to have begun during the second half of the 4th/10th century. The principal objective of such tafsīrs was ostensibly to give Persian speakers who were not proficient in Arabic direct access to the exegesis of the Koran.

  • EXEGESIS vi. In Aḵbārī and Post-Safavid Esoteric Shiʿism

    Todd Lawson

    Aḵbārī exegesis of the Koran, the style and content of which are much older than the Safavid period, became during that time a common method of interpreting Islamic scripture.

  • EXEGESIS vii. In Bahaism

    Todd Lawson

    importance of Koranic exegesis (tafsīr) and interpretation (taʾwīl)—a somewhat arbitrary distinction—for the Bābī and Bahai religions may be gathered from the fact that the inception of the former is dated to the commencement of a work of scriptural interpretation, namely the Bāb’s Tafsīr sūrat Yūsof, and that, in many ways, the most important work in the Bahai canon is the Ketāb-e īqān by Bahāʾ-Allāh.

  • EXEGESIS viii. Nishapuri School of Quranic Exegesis

    Walid A. Saleh

    A school of Quranic exegesis was established by three scholars from Nishapur in the 11th century which transformed the genre of tafsir and Quranic sciences and came to be known as the Nishapuri School.

  • EXILARCH

    Isaiah M. Gafni

    (Hebrew resh galuta), the leading authority in the Jewish community in Babylonia.

  • EXILE

    Cross-Reference

    See DEPORTATIONS; DIASPORA.

  • EXTRATERRITORIALITY

    Cross-Reference

    See JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SYSTEMS.

  • EXTREMIST SHIʿITES

    Cross-Reference

    See ḠOLĀT.

  • EY IRĀN

    Morteza Hoseyni Dehkordi and Parvin Loloi

    (O Iran, O bejeweled land), the title of an ardently patriotic hymn of praise to the land of Iran.

  • EYES and EARS of KING

    Cross-Reference

    See COURTS AND COURTIERS.

  • EYVĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See AYVĀN.