Table of Contents

  • ZABĀN-E ZANĀN

    Nassereddin Parvin

    a newspaper and a magazine published in Isfahan and Tehran, respectively, by Ṣeddiqa Dawlatābādi (1883-1961), a pioneer advocate of women’s rights in Iran (18 July, 1919 to 1 January, 1921, a total of 57 issues).

  • ZĀDSPRAM

    Philippe Gignoux

    a 9th-century Zoroastrian scholar and author. He was one of the four sons of Gušn-Jam (or Juwānjam, according to Boyce and Cereti).

  • ZĀDUYA

    Touraj Daryaee

    a Persian noble in the 7th century CE who was instrumental in the crowning of Farroḵzād Ḵosrow as Sasanian king.

  • ZAEHNER, ROBERT CHARLES

    Carlo Cereti

    (1913-1974), a scholar of Iranian and Indian studies, historian of religions, Professor at Oxford University, British Intelligence officer stationed at the British Embassy in Tehran, and the major planner of the plot leading to the overthrow of Moḥammad Mosaddeq’s government.

  • ẒAHIR-AL-DAWLA, EBRĀHIM KHAN

    Mehrnoush Soroush

    (d. Tehran, 1240/1824), military leader and governor of Kermān under Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar.

  • ZĀL

    A. Shapur Shahbazi and Simone Cristoforetti

    legendary prince of Sistān, father of Rostam, and a leading figure in Iranian traditional history. His story is given in the Šāh-nāma.

  • ZAMYĀD YAŠT

    Pallan Ichaporia

    Yašt 19, the last in sequence of the great pieces of the Yašt hymn collection of the Younger Avesta.

  • ZAND

    Cross-Reference

    Zoroastrian term for the literature written in Middle Persian to translate and explicate the Avestan scriptures. The supplementary explanations, which developed into the exegetical literature that we know from the Sasanian period and which are  preserved in the Middle Persian/Pahlavi texts are known as the Zand, hence the expression “Avesta and Zand” or “Zand-Avesta.”

    See EXEGESIS i. In Zoroastrianism.

  • ZAND DYNASTY

    John Perry

    a dynasty that ruled in Persia (excluding Khorasan) from Shiraz, from the time when Nāder Shah’s (r. 1736-47) successors, the Afsharids, failed to recover western Persia until the founding of the Qajar dynasty by Āḡā Moḥammad Khan Qajar (r. 1779-97).

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • ZAND Ī FRAGARD Ī JUD-DĒW-DĀD

    Yaakov Elman and Mahnaz Moazami

    “A Commentary on Chapters of the Vidēvdād”, a sixth-century Zoroastrian text. It has been preserved more or less intact as 240 pages and made up of about 540 sections.

  • ZĀR

    Maria Sabaye Moghaddam

    harmful wind (bād) associated with spirit possession beliefs in southern coastal regions of Iran. People believe in the existence of winds that can be either vicious or peaceful, believer (Muslim) or non-believer (infidel).

  • ZARANGIANA

    Cross-Reference

    territory around Lake Hāmun and the Helmand river in modern Sistān. See DRANGIANA.

  • ZARATHUSTRA

    Cross-Reference

    the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose transformation of his inherited religion inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the triumph of Islam. See ZOROASTER.

  • ZARINAIA

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    legendary Saka queen during the reign of the likewise legendary Median king Astibaras.

  • ZARIRI, ʿAbbās

    Jalil Doostkhah

    (b. Isfahan 1909; d. Isfahan 1971) noted story-teller (naqqāl). Zariri like most other eulogists of his era, was functionally illiterate. He memorized and recited whatever he heard from other storytellers and scroll-writers. However, he became literate towards the end of his life.

  • ŻARRĀBI, MOLUK

    Erik Naḵjavāni

    the stage name of Moluk Faršforuš Kāšāni (b. Kāšān, ca 1289 Š./1910; d. Tehran, 1378 Š./1999), Persian singer and actress. Moluk was born into a musically inclined family.

  • ZARUDNIĬ, NIKOLAĬ ALEKSEEVICH

    Natalia Ananjeva

    (1859-1919), zoologist and explorer of fauna in Iran. Between 1884 and 1904, he conducted field trips in the Caspian region, the plains of Bukhara, the Khiva (Ḵiva) oasis, and northern and eastern Persia. More than 130 species of animals were named after him.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • ZĀYANDARUD newspaper

    Nassereddin Parvin

    weekly newspaper published in Isfahan by ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Mo ʿin-al-Eslām Ḵᵛānsāri from 1 RabiʿI 1327 to 22 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1333 (23 March 1909 to 31 October 1915).

  • ZĀYČA

    Enrico G. Raffaelli

    Middle Persian term meaning "birth chart, horoscope."

  • ZAYN AL-AḴBĀR

    Cross-Reference

    a history written in 11th century by Gardizi. See GARDIZI