Table of Contents

• ĒLTOTMEŠ, ŠAMS-AL-DĪN

  Peter Jackson

  (d. 1236), first Sultan of Delhi.

• ELWELL-SUTTON, LAURENCE PAUL

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Elwell-Sutton’s interests and publications in Persian studies fall into five categories: Persian language; Persian literature; modern Persian history and politics; Persian folklore; and Islamic science. His Colloquial Persian and Elementary Persian Grammar have remained in print as standard works.

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• ELYĀSIDS

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀL-E ELYĀS.

• ELYMAIS

  John F. Hansman

  semi-independent state frequently subject to Parthian domination, which existed between the second century B.C.E. and the early third century C. E. in the territories of Ḵūzestān, in southwestern Persia.

• ʿEMĀD ḤASANĪ, MĪR, ʿEMĀD-AL-MOLK

  Kambiz Eslami

  b. Ebrāhīm (ca. 1554-1615), calligrapher. His rendition of nastaʿlīq, with smooth lines, many curves, very occasional diacritical marks, symmetry of letters and words, and usually excellent choice of decorations surrounding the words, had widespread appeal. 

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• ʿEMĀD-AL-DAWLA

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  b. Būya b. Fanā-Ḵosrow, the eldest of three brothers who came to power in western Persia during the tenth century as military adventurers and founded the Buyid dynasty.

• ʿEMĀD-al-DAWLA, Mīrzā MOḤAMMAD-ṬĀHER

  Kathryn Babayan

  WAḤĪD QAZVĪNĪ (ca. 1615-1701), poet and Safavid court historiographer for nearly three decades (1645-74).

• ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ FAQĪH KERMĀNĪ

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  mystic and poet of the 14th century who used ʿEmād or, more rarely, ʿEmād-e Faqīh, as a pen name.

• ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪN KĀTEB, ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD

  Donald S. Richards

  b. Moḥammad b. Ḥāmed EṢFAHĀNĪ, an eminent 12th-century government servant and man of letters, born in Isfahan in 1125.

• ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪN MAḤMŪD

  Emilie Savage-Smith

  b. Serāj-al-Dīn Masʿūd ŠĪRĀZĪ, the most prominent member of a 16th-century family of physicians in Shiraz.

• ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪN MARZBĀN, ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line.

• ʿEMĀD-AL-ESLĀM

  Maria E. Subtelny

  b. Moḥammad ʿAtīq-Allāh (1470-1506), a vizier of the Timurid Sultan Ḥosayn Bāyqarā, executed in Herat in 1498.

• ʿEMĀD-AL-KOTTĀB, MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN SAYFĪ QAZVĪNĪ

  ʿAbd-Allāh Forādi

  (b. Qazvīn, 16 April 1866; d. Tehran, 17 July 1936), calligrapher.

• ʿEMĀDĪ RĀZĪ

  Taqi Pūr-Nāmdārīān

  poet of the first half of the 12th century.

• EMĀM

  Cross-Reference

  (Imam), see SHIʿITE DOCTRINE; ČAHĀRDAH MAʿSŪM.

• EMĀM ṢĀḤEB

  Mehrdad Shokouhi

  two archeological sites in Afghanistan: (1) a village near the south bank of the Amū Daryā, about 50 km north of Qondūz, (2) a village in the Jōzjān region, south of the river Balḵāb, halfway between Balḵ and Āqča.

• EMĀM-AL-ḤARAMAYN

  Cross-Reference

  See JOVAYNĪ, Emām-al-Ḥaramayn.

• EMĀM-E ḠĀʾEB

  Cross-Reference

  "The Hidden Imam." See ḠAYBA and ISLAM IN IRAN vii. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN TWELVER SHIʿISM.

• EMĀM-E JOMʿA

  Hamid Algar

  leader of the congregational prayer performed at midday on Fridays.

• EMĀM-E ZAMĀN

  Cross-Reference

  Mahdi or "The Hidden Imam." See ḠAYBA and ISLAM IN IRAN vii. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN TWELVER SHIʿISM.

• ʿEMĀMA

  Cross-Reference

  the turban. See ʿAMĀMA.

• EMĀMA

  Cross-Reference

  (Imamate), see SHIʿITE DOCTRINE.

• EMĀMĪ HERĀVĪ, RAŻĪ-AL-DĪN ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  b. Abī Bakr b. ʿOṯmān (b. in Herat; d. in Isfahan, 1287), Persian poet of the Mongol period also noted for his learning.

• EMĀMĪ, JAMĀL

  Fakhreddin Azimi

  (b. 1901, Koy; d. 1966, Paris), politician.

• EMAMI, KARIM

  ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Āzarang and EIr

  Emami took an early interest in contemporary Persian art and literature. In 1959, before starting his career as a journalist and translator, he worked as a photographer and filmmaker at the film studio of Ebrāhim Golestān (b. 1922), modernist writer and director.

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• EMĀMĪ, Sayyed ḤASAN

  Cyrus Mir

  (1903-1981), Friday prayer leader of Tehran from 1947 to 1978. He studied traditional Islamic sciences in Tehran and continental law in Lausanne, Switzerland. Upon completing his doctorate, he returned to Iran and worked as a judge in the Ministry of Justice. He was regarded as a member of the shah’s inner circle. 

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• EMĀMĪYA

  Cross-Reference

  See SHIʿITE DOCTRINE; SHIʿITE DOCTRINE ii. Hierarchy in the Imamiyya.

• EMĀMQOLĪ KHAN

  Roger M. Savory

  son of the celebrated Georgian ḡolām Allāhverdī Khan; governor-general (beglarbeg) of Fārs in the early 17th century.

• EMĀMVERDĪ MĪRZĀ ĪL-ḴĀNĪ

  Ḥosayn Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

  (b. 9 March 1796), the twelfth son of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qajar; his mother was Begom Jān Qazvīnī.

• EMĀMZĀDA

  Multiple Authors

  a shrine believed to be the tomb of a descendent of a Shiʿite Imam. such structures are also known as āstāna (lit., threshold), marqad (resting place, mausoleum), boqʿa (revered site), rawża (garden/tomb), gonbad (dome), mašhad (place of martyrdom), maqām (site/abode), qadamgāh (stepping place), and torbat (dust, grave).

• EMĀMZĀDA i. Function and devotional practice

  Hamid Algar

  "Sites where divine favor and blessing occur, where mercy and grace descend; they are a refuge for the distressed, a shelter for the despondent, a haven for the oppressed, and a place of consolation for weary hearts, and will ever remain so until resurrection.”

• EMĀMZĀDA ii. Forms, decorations, and other characteristics

  PARVĪZ VARJĀVAND

  The identity of the people interred in emāmzādas and the exact location where they are entombed are often moot questions, as in most cases there are no historical documents authenticating the claims for these shrines.

• EMĀMZĀDA iii. Number, distribution, and important examples

  PARVĪZ VARJĀVAND

  Information and statistics regarding the number and distribution of emāmzādas in Persia vary from one source to another.

• EMBROIDERY

  Cross-Reference

  See CLOTHING.

• EMDĀD-ALLĀH ḤĀJĪ

  Barbara D. Metcalf

  (b. Thana Bhawan, India, 1817, d. Mecca, 1899), spiritual guide and scholar.

• ĒMĒD Ī AŠAWAHIŠTĀN

  Mansour Shaki

  (Exposition [of Zoroastrian doctrines] by Ēmēd, son of Ašawahišt), a major 10th-century Pahlavi work comprising forty-four questions (pursišn).

• EMERSON, RALPH WALDO

  John D. Yohannan

  (b. 25 May 1803, Boston; d. 27 April 1882, Concord), distinguished American transcendentalist, philosopher, and poet.

• EMIGRATION

  Cross-Reference

  See HUMAN MIGRATION.

• EMĪN YOMNĪ, MEḤMED

  Tahsın Yazici

  Moḥammad Amīn (b. Solaymānīya in Persia, 1845, d. Istanbul, 5 April 1924), Turkish poet and man of letters who also wrote in Persian.

• EMIR

  Cross-Reference

  See AMIR.

• EMIRATES OF THE PERSIAN GULF

  Cross-Reference

  See UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.

• EMLĀ BOḴĀRĀʾĪ, MOḤAMMAD

  Jirí Bečka

  b. ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn (b. 1688, Sangārak, Afghanistan; d. 1749, Bukhara), Sufi poet of Arab descent.

• EMMERICK, RONALD ERIC

  Mauro Maggi

  (1937-2001), distinguished Australian scholar of the ancient civilizations and languages of Iran, India, and Tibet.

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• EMPLOYMENT

  M. Amani

  economic activity in which one engages and employs his or her time and energy. One of the major factors contributing to the growth of services is the considerable number of people working for the government.

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• EMRĀNĪ

  David Yeroushalmi

  the name or most likely the penname (taḵalloṣ) of the fifteenth century Jewish-Persian poet of Isfahan and Kāšān.

• EMTĪĀZĀT

  Cross-Reference

  See CONCESSIONS.

• EN ISLAM IRANIEN, ASPECTS SPIRITUELS ET PHILOSOPHIQUES

  Daryush Shayegan

  (4 vols., Paris, 1971-73), the magnum opus of Henry Corbin, consisting of essays summarizing most of the major themes that defined his scholarly career and revealing his intellectual grasp of Persian philosophical thought.

• ENAMEL

  EIr, Layla S. Diba

  a heat-fused glass paste colored by metal oxides and used to decorate metal surfaces. Enamel was associated with lapidary, glassworking, and goldmithing crafts and was probably used primarily in place of precious stones before the 17th century.

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• ʿENĀYAT, ḤAMĪD

  Ahmad Ashraf

  (1932-82), political scientist and translator.

• ʿENĀYAT-ALLĀH

  Sheila S. Blair

  Timurid builder or tile maker of the 15th century.

• ʿENĀYAT-ALLĀH KANBO

  Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi

  (b. Burhanpur, 31 August 1608; d. Delhi, 23 September 1671), Sufi and scholar, descendant of an old respected Lahore family that had converted to Islam in Punjab.

• ENCYCLOPAEDIA IRANICA

• ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM

  Elton L. Daniel

  a reference work of fundamental importance on topics dealing, according to its self-description, with “the geography, ethnography and biography of the Muhammadan peoples.”

• ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF TAJIKISTAN

  Cross-Reference

  See ĖNTSIKLOPEDIYAI SOVETII TOJIK.

• ENCYCLOPAEDIAS, PERSIAN

  Živa Vesel and Hūšang Aʿlam

  OVERVIEW of the entry: i. Premodern, ii. Modern.

• ENDOWMENT

  Cross-Reference

  On charitable endowments (waqf), at present see  AMLĀK, ḴĀṢṢA.

  Regarding institutions, see CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS. See under individual entries, such as BONYĀD-E FARHANG-E ĪRĀN; BONYĀD-E ŠAHĪD; BONYĀD-E ŠĀH-NĀMA-YE FERDOWSĪ.

• ENGLAND

  Cross-Reference

  See GREAT BRITAIN.

• ENGLISH i. Persian Elements in English

  D. N. Mackenzie

  OVERVIEW of the entry: i. Persian elements in English. ii. Persian influences in English and American literature. iii. Translations of classical Persian literature. iv. Translations of modern Persian literature. v. i. Translations of English literature into Persian.

• ENGLISH ii. Persian Influences in English and American Literature

  John D. Yohannan

  Although academic Persian studies may be said to have begun in England in the early 17th century, it was not until the late 18th century that the Persian poets began to be read in English translations. 

• ENGLISH iii. Translations Of Classical Persian Literature

  Michael Beard

  fall initially into two categories. There is a group of texts whose purpose is to convey the information of the original in discrete units, most useful with prose or narrative poetry and not necessarily “literary.” There are other translations designed to carry over the formal elements of a literary text.

• ENGLISH iv. Translations Of Modern Persian Literature

  Michael Beard

  Modernist literature in Persia can be said to develop gradually throughout the 19th century, but for English readers it begins abruptly, shortly after the Constitutional revolution, with the translations of Edward Browne.

• ENGLISH v. Translation Of English Literature into Persian

  Karīm Emāmi

  The first texts translated from English into Persian were diplomatic exchanges and bilateral treaties.

• ENJAVĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ, SAYYED ABU’L-QĀSEM

  Ulrich Marzolph

  (b. Shiraz, 1921; d. Tehran, 16 September 1993), eminent Persian folklorist.

• ENJĪL

  Cross-Reference

  See BIBLE.

• ENJŪ

  Cross-Reference

  See INJU DYNASTY.

• ENOCH

  Cross-Reference

  See AḴNŪḴ.

• ENOCH, BOOKS OF

  J. C. Reeves

  attributed to the seventh antediluvian biblical patriarch Enoch (Genesis 5.21-24), which show Iranian influence.

• ENQELĀB-E ESLĀMĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See REVOLUTION OF 1978-79.

• ENQELĀB-E ESLĀMĪ NEWSPAPER

  Nassereddin Parvin

  a newspaper published by Abu’l-Ḥasan Banī-Ṣadr and supporting his political views. 

• ENQELĀB-E MAŠṞUṬĪYĀ

  Cross-Reference

  See CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION.

• ENQELĀB-E SAFĪD

  Cross-Reference

  See WHITE REVOLUTION.

• ENŠĀʾ

  Jürgen Paul

  lit. "composition"; the process of creating or composing something as well as the result of this process and the rules of the art; it denotes a genre of prose literature, copies, drafts, or specimens of official and private correspondence.

• ENŠĀʾ-ALLĀH KHĀN, SAYYED

  M. Asif Naim Siddiqui

  (b. Moršedābād, 1756; d. Lucknow, 1818), Urdu-Persian poet and writer.

• ENSĀN-E KĀMEL

  Gerhard Böwering

  lit. "the Perfect Human Being"; a key idea in the philosophy and ethics of Islamic mysticism.

• ENTEBĀH

  L. P. ELWELL-SUTTON

  lit. “Awakening”; a Persian newspaper published in Karbalā, Iraq, in 1914 by Mīrzā ʿAlī Āqā Šīrāzī Labīb-al-Molk, editor of Moẓaffarī published in Būšehr and Mecca.

• 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.

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• ĖNTSIKLOPEDIYAI SOVETII TOJIK

  H. Borjian

  (Tajik Soviet Encyclopedia), the first general encyclopedia of Tajikistan, published in the Tajik Persian language and Cyrillic alphabet (8 vols., Dushanbe, 1978-88).

• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

  Eskandar Firouz, Daniel Balland

  efforts to protect natural resources, wildlife, and ecosystems and to control pollution. In Persia conservation consciousness began, as it so often does, with concern for wildlife.

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• ENZELI

  Cross-Reference

  See ANZALĪ.

• EPHESUS, SEVEN SLEEPERS OF

  Nicholas Sims-Williams

  Christian legend attested by texts in many languages.

• EPHRAIM KHAN

  Cross-Reference

  See EPʿREM KHAN.

• EPICS

  François de Blois

  narrative poems of legendary and heroic content.

• EPIDEMICS

  Cross-Reference

  See PLAGUES.

• EPIGRAM

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  originally a Greek word meaning “inscription” and denoting in Western literatures a genre of short poems characterized by their contents and style rather than by a specific prosodic form.

• EPIGRAPHY

  Multiple Authors

  the study of inscriptions, particularly their collection, decipherment, interpretation, dating, and classification.

• EPIGRAPHY i. Old Persian and Middle Iranian epigraphy

  Helmut Humbach

  Iranian epigraphy of the pre-Islamic period covers mainly inscriptions in the Old and Middle Iranian languages. Old and Middle Persian inscriptions span by far the longest period of time, from the Bīsotūn inscription until the early Islamic period.

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• EPIGRAPHY ii. Greek inscriptions from ancient Iran

  Philip Huyse

  In April 1815 the Prussian Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin enthusiastically accepted the proposal by August Boeckh to produce a comprehensive thesaurus of inscriptions that would include all Greek inscriptional material published to date.

• EPIGRAPHY iii. Arabic inscriptions in Persia

  Sheila S. Blair

  In Persia, as in other Islamic lands, Arabic was the basic language for religious texts on buildings and objects. In the early Islamic period these texts were usually written in some variant of the angular script known as Kufic. From the 12th century inscriptions in Persian became more common.

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• EPIGRAPHY iv. Safavid and later inscriptions

  Sussan Babaie

  The principal characteristic of epigraphy in Persia after the advent of the Safavids (1501) is the emphasis on Persian poetry and pious Shiʿite texts with an iconographic potency and deliberate frequency hitherto unknown. Arabic remained the language of koranic and Hadith quotations while Persian became increasingly prominent.

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• EPIGRAPHY v. Inscriptions from the Indian subcontinent

  Ziyaud-Din A. Desai

  The systematic survey and study of Perso-Arabic epigraphy of the Indian subcontinent is not even half a century old.

• EPIPHANIUS

  Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin

  (b. Eleutheropolis, Judaea, ca. 315; d. Constantia, Cyprus), bishop of Constantia on Cyprus, founded on the remains of Salamis.

• EPISCOPAL

  Hassan B. Dehqani-Tafti

  a diocese of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, one of thirty-seven independent churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

• EPISTLES OF MANI

  Cross-Reference

  See MANICHEISM.

• EPISTOLARY STYLE

  Cross-Reference

  See CORRESPONDENCE.

• EPʿREM KHAN

  Aram Arkun

  Pers. Yeprem/Efrem (1868-1912), Armenian revolutionary and important military leader of the Constitutional Revolution. He uneasily reconciled his beliefs with his position as police chief of Tehran, resigning and returning to office several times.  On 24 December 1911, he shut down the parliament to comply with a Russian ultimatum, and this marked the close of Persia’s Constitutional Revolution.

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• EQBĀL

  Cross-Reference

  a newspaper. See EḤTĪĀJ.

• EQBĀL ĀḎAR, ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN QAZVĪNĪ

  Moḥammad-Taqī Masʿudiya

  or EQBĀL-AL-SOLṬĀN (b. Alvand, near Qazvīn, ca. 1869; d. Tabrīz, probably 1973), singer of Persian traditional music.

• EQBĀL ĀŠTĪĀNĪ, ʿABBĀS

  Īraj Afšār

  During his years at Dār al-fonūn, Eqbāl came to know such litterati as Moḥammad-ʿAlī Forūḡī, Abu’l-Ḥasan Forūḡī, Mortażā Najmābādī, ʿAbd-al-ʿAẓīm Qarīb, Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Rahnemā, and ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Bōḡāyerī, under whose influence he embarked on a career of scholarship that continued until his death.

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• EQBĀL LĀHŪRĪ, MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

  See IQBAL, MUHAMMAD.

• EQBĀL PUBLISHERS

  Cross-Reference

  See PUBLISHERS.