Table of Contents

  • DOLDOL

    Aḥmad Mahdawī Dāmḡānī

    or Doldūl, in Ar. lit., “large porcupine”; name of a female mule that Moqawqes, governor of Egypt, sent to the Prophet Moḥammad as a gift.

  • DOLGORUKOV MEMOIRS

    Moojan Momen

    document published under the title Eʿterāfāt-e sīāsī yā yāddāšthā-ye Kenyāz Dolqorūkī (Political confessions or memoirs of Prince Dolgorukov) in the historical portion of the “Khorasan yearbook,” issued in Mašhad in 1943.

  • DOLICHĒ

    Erich Kettenhofen

    city in the Roman province of Syria conquered together with the surrounding area by Šāpūr I  during his second campaign against Rome in 252 or 253.

  • DOLMA

    M. R. Ghanoonparvar

    or dūlma; Turkish term for stuffed vegetable or fruit dishes common in the Middle East and in Mediterranean countries.

  • DOLOMITAE

    Cross-Reference

    See DEYLAMITES i.

  • DOMAN

    Erich Kettenhofen

    city in the Roman province of Cappadocia, conquered along with the surrounding area by the Sasanian Šāpūr I (240-70) during his second campaign against Rome.

  • DOMES

    Bernard O’Kane

    circular vaulted roofs or ceilings. The variety of forms and decoration of Persian domes is unrivaled. Domes on squinches first appeared in Persia in the Sasanian period in the palace at Fīrūzābād in Fārs and at nearby Qalʿa-ye Doḵtar, both erected by Ardašir I (r. 224-40).

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  • DOMESTIC ANIMALS

    Daniel Balland and Jean-Pierre Digard

    This article is devoted to the principal characteristics of the predominant systems of domestication in Afghanistan and Persia, what they owe to neighboring or preceding systems, how they have departed from them, and whether or not it is possible to speak of a typically Iranian system of domestication.

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  • DONALDSON, BESS ALLEN

    Peter Avery

    (1879-1974) and DWIGHT MARTIN (1884-1976), American Presbyterian missionaries and writers about Persia.

  • DONBA

    M. R. Ghanoonparvar

    the fatty part of the sheep’s tail, traditionally used as a cooking fat, sometimes in melted form, or as an inexpensive meat substitute.

  • DONBAK

    Cross-Reference

    See TONBAK.

  • DONBĀVAND

    Cross-Reference

    See DAMĀVAND.

  • DONBOLĪ

    ʿALĪ ĀL-E DĀWŪD and Pierre Oberling

    name of a turkicized Kurdish tribe in the Ḵoy and Salmās regions of northwestern Azerbaijan and of the leading family of Ḵoy since the 16th century.

  • DONBOLĪ, ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ BEG

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ BEG.

  • DONKEY

    Multiple Authors

    i. In Persian tradition and folk belief. ii. Domestication in Iran.

  • DONKEY i. In Persian tradition and folk belief

    Mahmoud Omidsalar and Teresa P. Omidsalar

    domesticated species descended from the wild ass, probably first bred in captivity in Egypt and western Asia, where by 2500 B.C.E. the domesticated donkey was in use as a beast of burden.

  • DONKEY ii. Domestication in Iran

    Daniel T. Potts

    The Tol-e Nurābād sherd raises many questions about the locus of donkey domestication in the Old World, particularly since the Zagros highlands, where it was discovered, have been considered well to the east of the original range of Equid africanus.

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  • DONYĀ

    Nassereddin Parvin

    lit., “The world”; name of several Persian journals and newspapers.

  • DONYĀ-YE EMRŪZ

    Nassereddin Parvin

    lit. "Today’s world"; name of a weekly magazine published in Tehran and two weekly newspapers founded in Qazvīn and Isfahan, respectively.

  • DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES

    Sheila Blair, Mortażā Momayyez

    in Persian architecture major foci of decoration, varying in size and elaboration with the function and importance of the building and the location of the entrance in relation to the total composition.

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  • DŌRĪ

    Daniel Balland

    river in southern Afghanistan, the main tributary of the Arḡandā.

  • DORN, JOHANNES ALBRECHT BERNHARD

    N. L. Luzhetskaya

    (1805-1881), pioneer in many areas of Iranian studies in Russia. He never visited Afghanistan, but he nevertheless established the scientific basis for Afghan studies, particularly the first systematic description of Pashto.

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  • DORNĀ

    Cross-Reference

    See CRANE.

  • DORR

    Cross-Reference

    See PEARL i. Pre-Islamic Period and PEARL ii. Islamic Period.

  • DORRĀNĪ

    Daniel Balland

    probably the most numerous Pashtun tribal confederation, from which all Afghan dynasties since 1747 have come. The Dorrānī confederation is a political grouping of ten Pashtun tribes of various sizes, which are further organized in two leagues of five tribes each.

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  • DORRĀNĪ DYNASTY

    Cross-Reference

    See AFGHANISTAN x.

  • DORRĀNĪ, AḤMAD SHAH

    Cross-Reference

    See AFGHANISTAN x.

  • ḎORRAT

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    maize or (Indian) corn, Zea mays L. (fam. Gramineae), with many varieties and hybrids.

  • DORRAT AL-NAJAF

    Nassereddin Parvin

    lit. "Pearl of Najaf"; monthly religious journal published in Persian at Najaf in southern Iraq at the end of the first decade of the 20th century.

  • DORRAT-AL-MAʿĀLĪ

    Afsaneh Najmabadi

    (b. Tehran, 1873, d. Tehran, Šahrīvar 1924), pioneer in female education in Persia.

  • DORRI EFENDI

    Cross-Reference

    See DÜRRI EFENDI.

  • DORŪD

    ʿALĪ ĀL-E DĀWŪD

    a town in Lorestān province, situated at the foot of Oštorānkūh, at an altitude of 1,460 m on the route from Tehran to Ḵorramābād at the confluence of the rivers Tīra and Mārbara.

  • DŌŠĪ

    Daniel Balland

    small town and district on the northern slope of the central Hindu Kush in Afghanistan.

  • DOŠMANZĪĀRĪ

    Pierre Oberling

    name of two Lor tribes in southern Persia, the Došmanzīārī-e Mamasanī and the Došmanzīārī-e Kūhgīlūya.

  • DŌST MOḤAMMAD KHAN

    Amin H. Tarzi

    (b. Qandahār December 1792, d. Herat, 9 June 1863), first ruler of the Bārakzay/Moḥammadzay dynasty of Afghanistan. He was the first to bring the region that today constitutes Afghanistan under the control, occasionally tenuous, of a single central government.

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  • DOTĀR

    Jean During

    long-necked lute of the tanbūr family, usually with two strings (do tār). The principal feature is the pear-shaped sound box attached to a neck that is longer than the box and faced with a wooden soundboard. Dotārs can be classified in several different types.

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  • DOZĀLA

    Jean During

    kind of flute consisting of two parallel pipes pierced with holes and fitted with a removable vibrating mouthpiece made by cutting a U-shaped incision into a thin reed.

  • DOZDĀB

    Cross-Reference

    See ZĀHEDĀN.

  • DOZY, REINHARD PETRUS ANNE

    J. T. P. de Bruijn

    (b. Leiden, 21 February 1820, d. Leiden, 29 April 1883), Dutch orientalist renowned especially as a lexicographer of Arabic and a historian of Muslim Andalusia.

  • DRAGON

    Cross-Reference

    See AŽDAHĀ.

  • DRAINAGE

    Eckart Ehlers

    the carrying away of excess surface water through runoff in permanent or intermittent streams. Persia can be divided into four main drainage regions: the Caspian region, the Lake Urmia region, the Persian Gulf region, and the interior. Most of it is characterized by endorheic basins, that is, by interior drainage.

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  • DRAMA

    M. R. Ghanoonparvar

    in formal Western terms a relatively new art form in Persia, though various types of dramatic performance, including religious plays and humorous satirical skits, have long been a part of Persian religious and folk tradition.

  • DRANGIANA

    R. Schmitt

    or Zarangiana; territory around Lake Hāmūn and the Helmand river in modern Sīstān.

  • DRÁPSAKA

    Frantz Grenet

    Greek name of a Bactrian city in northern Afghanistan, the first town captured by Alexander the Great after crossing the Hindu Kush.

  • DRAWING

    M. L. Swietochowski

    an art form primarily dependent on expressive line. The high quality of Persian drawings maintained from the late 13th to the early 20th century provides a clear indication that this art form was appreciated by the Persian cultural elite.

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  • DRAXT Ī ĀSŪRĪG

    Aḥmad Tafażżolī

    lit. "The Babylonian tree"; a versified contest over precedence between a goat and a palm tree, composed in the Parthian language, written in Book Pahlavi script, and consisting of about 120 verses. 

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  • DREAMS AND DREAM INTERPRETATION

    Hossein Ziai

    i. In pre-Islamic Persia. ii. In the Persian tradition.

  • DRESDEN, MARK JAN

    Hiroshi Kumamoto

    (b. Amsterdam, 26 April 1911; d. Philadelphia, 16 August 1986), professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught Persian, then various Old and Middle Iranian languages from 1949 until his retirement in 1977.  He worked especially on Khotanese literary texts.

  • DREYFUS-BARNEY

    Shapour Rassekh

    joint surname adopted by two leading Bahai figures of the 20th century.

  • DRIWAY

    Jean Kellens

    (or Driβi-), Younger Avestan noun from the Vidēvdād; the word probably referred either to a skin disease or to drooling.