Table of Contents

  • FICTION

    Multiple Authors

    i. Traditional Forms. ii. Modern Fiction. ii(a). Historical Background. ii(b). The Novel. ii(c). The Short Story. ii(d). The Post-Revolutionary Short Story. ii(e). Post-Revolutionary Fiction Abroad. ii(f). By Persians in Non-Persian Languages. ii(g). In Afghanistan. ii(h). In Tajikistan.

  • FICTION, i

    J. T. P. de Bruijn

    OVERVIEW of the entry: i. TRADITIONAL FORMS. This article deals with all kinds of stories written for specifically literary purposes up to the time when narrative prose in the modern style, derived from the West, was introduced in Persia.

  • FICTION, ii(a)

    SĪMĪN BEHBAHĀNĪ and EIr

    ii(a). HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF MODERN FICTION.  The long reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1848-96) and the Constitutional Revolution a decade after his death witnessed the gradual emergence of modern fiction in Persia.

  • FICTION, ii(b)

    Houra Yavari

    ii(b). THE NOVEL.

  • FICTION, ii(c)

    Jamāl Mīrṣādeqī

    ii(c). THE SHORT STORY. Historically, the modern Persian short story has undergone three stages of development: a formative period, a period of consolidation and growth, and a period of diversity.

  • FICTION, ii(d)

    Houra Yavari

    ii(d). THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY SHORT STORY. The post-revolutionary short story is marked by its formal sophistication and has carved out a distinct and experimental space of its own in fiction.

  • FICTION, ii(e)

    Houra Yavari

    ii(e). POST-REVOLUTIONARY FICTION ABROAD. Not only were the novel and short story imported genres, the very first works of Persian fiction were either written or first published outside Persia.

  • 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.

  • FICTION, ii(g)

    Shahwali Ahmadi

    ii(g). IN AFGHANISTAN. The introduction of modern fiction in Afghanistan was concomitant with the institution of new educational and literary organizations, namely the Ḥabībīya School and Anjoman-e adabī, and the publication of the bi-weekly Serāj al-aḵbār-e afḡānīya, edited by Maḥmūd Ṭarzī, in the early twentieth century.

  • FICTION, ii(h)

    Keith Hitchins

    ii(h). IN TAJIKISTAN. Tajik fiction in the 20th century has drawn from a variety of sources.

  • FIEF

    Cross-Reference

    See EQṬĀʿ; LAND TENURE.

  • FIG

    Hušang Aʿlam

    the “fruit” of several species and subspecies of Ficus L. (fam. Moraceae) in the geobotanical area covered by K. H. Rechinger’s Flora Iranica.

  • FIGUEROA, GARCÍA DE SILVA Y

    Michele Bernardini

    (b. Zafra, 1550; d. at sea returning from Persia, 1624), Spanish diplomat and traveler.

  • FIGURES OF SPEECH

    Cross-reference

    See BADIʿ (1).

  • FĪL

    Cross-Reference

    See ELEPHANT.

  • FILBERT

    Cross-Reference

    See HAZELNUT.

  • FILIPPI, FILIPPO DE

    Anna Vanzan

    (1814-1867), a professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at Turin University.

  • FILM PRODUCTION

    Cross-Reference

    See Supplement; see also CINEMA.

  • FĪN

    Cross-Reference

    strict and spring near Kāšān. See BĀḠ-E FĪN.

  • FINKENSTEIN, TREATY OF

    Cross-Reference

    See FRANCE iii; GARDANE MISSION.

  • FIRE

    Cross-reference

    See ĀDUR, ĀTAŠ, ĀTAŠKADA.

  • FIRE ALTARS

    Mark Garrison

    a structure used to to hold fire for urposes of veneration, probably contained within a metal or clay bowl. The term should probably be restricted to those structures which have a clear Zoroastrian religious context.

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  • FIRE TEMPLES

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀTAŠKADA.

  • FIRE WORSHIP

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀTAŠ.

  • FIREARMS i. HISTORY

    Rudi Matthee

    in Persia. This article surveys the history and production of various firearms and artillery in Persia from their introduction to the 19th century.

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  • FIREARMS ii. PRODUCTION OF CANNON AND MUSKETS

    Parviz Mohebbi

    By the last quarter of the 16th century, cannon-making was so common that cannons were constructed even on the spot during siege operations.

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  • FIRMAN

    Cross-Reference

    See FARMĀN.

  • FIRST DASTUR MEHERJIRANA LIBRARY, THE

    Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo

    the second Parsi library founded in India, established in 1872 CE in Navsari (India) by the Meherjirana family and celebrated since the 12th century CE for its religious relevance for in Gujarat.

  • FĪRŪZ

    Klaus Schippmann

    (PĒRŌZ) Sasanian king (r. 459-84), son of Yazdegerd II (r. 439-57). 

  • FĪRŪZ BAHRĀM

    Fariborz Majīdī and Hūšang Etteḥād

    one of Tehran’s oldest high schools, founded by Parsi philanthropist Bahramji Bikaji as a memorial to his son Fīrūz, who was lost at sea in the Mediterranean in 1915. Bikaji’s initial plan was to build an elementary school in

  • FĪRŪZ MAŠREQĪ

    Aḥmad Edāračī Gīlānī

    (or Pīrūz; not Mošrefī as in Majmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ, p. 946), poet at the court of the Saffarids Yaʿqūb b. Layṯ (r. 867-78) and his brother ʿAmr b. Layṯ.

  • FĪRŪZ MĪRZA

    Cross-reference

    (1817-1886), sixteenth son of ʿAbbās Mīrzā and grandson of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah. See FARMĀNFARMĀ, FĪRŪZ MĪRZĀ.

  • FĪRŪZ ŠĀPŪR

    Cross-reference

    name of a town on the left bank of the Euphrates five km north-west of Fallūǰa and sixty-two km west of Baghdad. See ANBĀR.

  • FIRUZ, MARYAM

    Maziar Behrooz

    Firuz was born into the royal Qajar family.  Her father was ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Mirzā Farmānfarmā, the second son of Firuz Mirzā Noṣrat-al-Dawla Farmānfarmā, the sixteenth son of ʿAbbās Mirzā, son and the crown prince of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah, the second Qajar king.

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  • FĪRŪZA

    Cross-reference

    See TURQUOISE.

  • FĪRŪZĀBĀD

    Dietrich Huff

    The plain of Fīrūzābād has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with a major Chalcolithic site, Tall-e Rīgī, in the south. Surrounded bys mountains with few access roads, it was chosen by Ardašīr-e Bābakān as the key stronghold in his revolt against the last Parthian king.

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  • FĪRŪZĀBĀDĪ, ABŪ ṬĀHER MOḤAMMAD

    Cross-reference

    See Supplement.

  • FĪRŪZKŪH

    Bernard Hourcade

    name of two towns: (1) a fortified city in the medieval Islamic province of Ḡūr in Central Afghanistan, which was the capital of the senior branch of the Ghurid sultans (see GHURIDS) for some sixty years in the later 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries; (2) fortress and surrounding settlement in the Damāvand region of the Alborz mountains in northern Persia.

  • FĪRŪZŠĀH-NĀMA

    William L. Hanaway

    pre-Safavid prose romance, the hero of which is Fīrūzšāh, son of Dārāb of the Kayanid house. 

  • FISCAL SYSTEM

    Multiple Authors

    i. Achaemenid Period. ii. Sasanian Period. iii. Islamic Period. iv. Safavid and Qajar Periods. v. Pahlavi Period. vi. Islamic Republic..

  • FISCAL SYSTEM i. ACHAEMENID, ii. SASANIAN

    Mohammad A. Dandamayev, Rika Gyselen

    There probably was no clear distinction between state and royal incomes in the Achaemenid empire. All state receipts were considered royal property, as was the income from the king’s estates. 

  • FISCAL SYSTEM iii. ISLAMIC PERIOD

    JÜRGEN PAUL

    iii. ISLAMIC PERIOD Such a system can be studied in at least three aspects: First, its relationship to the ruler or the government; second, its relationship to those groups in the population who serve as sources of revenue (“taxpayers”);

  • FISCAL SYSTEM iv. SAFAVID AND QAJAR PERIODS

    Willem Floor

    iv. SAFAVID AND QAJAR PERIODS The Safavid shah’s fiscal prerogatives were expressed by terms like bājgoḏār, bājsetān, and jezyagoḏār (tax assessor or tax taker).

  • FISCAL SYSTEM v. PAHLAVI PERIOD

    MASSOUD KARSHENAS

    The first attempts at setting up a modern fiscal system in Persian began after the Constitutional Revolution.

  • FISCAL SYSTEM vi. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

    Adnan Mazarei

    The receipt of large revenues from oil exports and their expenditure for developing various sectors of the economy, improving infrastructure, and providing social services have made the government’s fiscal policies a major determinant of the overall economic incentives, structure and level of economic activity.

  • FISCHEL, WALTER JOSEPH

    David Yeroushalmi

    (b. 12 November 1902; d. 14 July 1973), a scholar of Oriental Jewry and Islamic civilization.

  • FISH

    Multiple Authors

    in Persia. With about 1,800 km of coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and about 990 km on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, plus some inland fresh waters, Persia has a great variety of aquatic fauna: mollusks, crustaceans, chelonians, mammals (dolphins, whales, seals), and particularly, fishes. Thus the country has rich aquatic resources and considerable potential for fishing and aquaculture.

  • FISH i. FRESHWATER FISHES

    Brian W. Coad

    With about 1,800 km of coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and about 990 km on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, plus some inland fresh waters, Persia has a great variety of aquatic fauna: mollusks, crustaceans, chelonians, mammals, and especially fishes.

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  • FISH ii. SALT WATER FISHES

    Hušang Aʿlam

    Except for occasional short reports by foreign researchers on some individual fish species from the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf, there was no comprehensive scientific study of the ichthyofauna of the region until the Danish H. Blegvad and B. Løppenthin’s systematic survey.

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  • FISH iii. IN PRE-ISLAMIC PERSIAN LORE

    Hušang Aʿlam

    The Bundahišn contains interesting pseudo-scientific, mythical, and sometimes inconsistent information about fishes.

  • FISH iv. FISH AS FOOD

    NAJMIEH BATMANGLIJ

    Although fish is the main source of animal protein along the northern and southern coasts of Persia, it is not much eaten in the rest of the country but in a smoked form as a delicacy traditionally served with rice and fresh herbs on the first day of the new year at the end of the zodiacal month of Pisces.

  • FISHERIES

    Houshang Alam

    There was no real fishing organization in Persia until the second half of the 19th century when Russian subjects, encouraged and backed by the Tsarist Russia’s expansionist policy, becameinncreasingly involved in coastal and fluvial fishing activities in the Caspian provinces of Persia.

  • FITZGERALD, EDWARD

    Dick Davis

    (1809-1883),  British translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (by far the most famous translation ever made from Persian verse into English), as well as Jāmī’s Salāmān o Absāl and ʿAṭṭār’s Manṭeq al-ṭayr.

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  • FLAGS

    Multiple Authors

    This article is meant to supplement earlier entries on Iranian vexillology (see ʿALAM VA ʿALĀMAT, BANNERS, and DERAFŠ).

  • FLAGS i. Of Persia

    A. Shapur Shahbazi

    The earliest-known representation of lion and sun as a banner device is a miniature painting illustrating a copy, dated 1423, of the Šāh-nāma of Šams-al-Dīn Kāšānī—an epic composition on the Mongol conquest. A similar early depiction is on a large, double-paged miniature dated ca. 1460.

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  • FLAGS ii. Of Afghanistan

    Habib Borjian

    Nāder Shah’s (1929-33) policy of moderate reforms was reflected in the flag he reportedly used when he seized power—the tricolor flag introduced by Amān-Allāh; it was soon modified as a bound sheaf of wheat circling a stylized mosque, which recalls the mausoleum of Aḥmad Shah Dorrānī.

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  • FLAGS iii. of Tajikistan

    Habib Borjian

    On 28 April 1929, the constitution of the Tajik ASSR adopted a state arms and flag. The arms consisted of a hammer (bālḡa) and local sickle (dās) symbol against a star, which depicts a blue sky brightened by golden rays of sun rising above snowy mountains. The star is encircled on each side by wreaths of wheat and cotton.

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  • FLANDIN AND COSTE

    Jean Calmard

    Eugène Flandin was the son of Jean-Baptiste Flandin, an intendant in Napoléon’s armies. Little is known about his mother Marie-Agnès Durand. Eugène’s early years were linked with his father’s tumultuous career. He was only two years old when his family returned from Naples, where his father had been assigned since 1807, serving with Murat.

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  • FLANDIN, Eugène Napoléon Jean-Baptiste

    Cross-Reference

    (1809-1889), French orientalist, painter, archeologist, and politician, famous for the illustrated account of his travels in Persia. See FLANDIN AND COSTE.

  • FLOODS

    Eckart Ehlers, Charles Melville

    (sayl, sayl-āb) in Persia. i. Geographical survey. ii. Historical survey. Surplus or deficit of water, mainly caused by Persia’s topography, undergoes seasonal variations with decisively stronger precipitation during the winter months, which explains why floods occur predominantly during these periods.

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  • FLORA

    Multiple Authors

    i. Historical Background. ii. In Persia. iii. In Afghanistan

  • FLORA i. Historical Background

    Karl Hummel

    The indigenous knowledge of plants in Persia had a long standing tradition before the country’s flora was explored by Europeans, who were eventually joined in modern scientific botany by Persian botanists.

  • FLORA ii. IN PERSIA

    Wolfgang Frey, Harald Kürschner, Wilfried Probst

    With approximately six thousand recorded species of ferns and flowering plants, Persia harbors one of the richest floras of the Near Eastern countries, ranging from subtropical forests to dry-adapted woodlands, dwarf shrubs and thorn cushion formations, and semidesert shrublands.

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  • FLORA iii. In Afghanistan

    Cross-Reference

    See AFGHANISTAN ii. Flora.

  • FLORA IRANICA

    Wolfgang Frey

    a monumental work on the plants of Persia. Edited by Karl Heinz Rechinger of Vienna since 1963, Flora Iranica now consists of some 172 fascicles and is nearly complete. Only two spermatophyte families, the Cyperaceae and the Rubiaceae, are as yet lacking

  • FLORENCE

    Cross-Reference

    See ŠAH-NĀMA MANUSCRIPTS.

  • FLOWERS

    Cross-Reference

    See GOL.

  • FLOYER, ERNEST AYSCOGHE

    Josef Elfenbein

    Floyer became the first station chief at Jāsk in 1870, although he was only seventeen, and served until 1877. Goldsmid encouraged his station and substation staff to explore their surroundings, and Floyer was one of those who responded, taking a long leave of absence in 1876-77.

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  • FLÜGEL, GUSTAV LEBERECHT

    Gerd Gropp

    (b. 18 February 1802, Bautzen; d. 5 July 1870, Dresden), German orientalist.

  • FLURY, SAMUEL

    Jens Kröger

    (1874-1935) pioneer of Islamic paleographical studies. Although Flury was primarily interested in problems of the development of Kufic script, much of his specific research was focused on monuments in Persia.

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  • FOʾĀDI BOŠRUʾI, ḤASAN

    Fereydun Vahman

    (1899-1936), historian, philologist, educator, and head of Bahai schools in Iran and Turkmenistan.

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  • FOḠĀN

    Cross-reference

    See AŠRAF-ʿALĪ KHAN FOḠĀN.

  • FŌLĀDĪ

    Cross-Reference

    Buddhist cave site in Afghanistan. See AFGHANISTAN viii.

  • FOLK POETRY

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    in Iranian languages. The term ‘folk poetry’ can be properly used for texts which have some characteristics marking them as poetry and belong to the tradition of the common people, as against the dominant ‘polite’ literary cult

  • FOLKLORE STUDIES

    Multiple Authors

    aims to provide a summary of folklore studies made in or about the Iranian world. It encompasses a wide field of varying notions, ranging from popular beliefs and customs to myths, legends and other genres of oral literature.

  • FOLKLORE STUDIES i. OF PERSIA

    Ulrich Marzolph

    The term folklore denotes, in a very broad sense, the traditional cultural expression of any notable group of people, not necessarily belonging to a specific social stratum.

  • FOLKLORE STUDIES ii. OF AFGHANISTAN

    Margaret A. Mills and Abdul Ali Ahrary

    Folklore may be defined as roughly comprising the oral-traditional component of culture, complementary or competitive with an official, canonical “written” culture, but this definition presents certain problems.

  • FOLŪS

    Cross-reference

    See CASSIA.

  • FONDOQESTĀN

    B. A. Litvinskiĭ

    (FONDUKISTAN), early medieval settlement and Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, in the province of Parvān (Parwan). The site is usually dated to the 7th century CE on the evidence of artistic style and numismatic finds, the oldest of which is from 689 C.E. However, the shape and the decorations of the stupa suggest that the complex can be even earlier.

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  • FOOD

    Cross-reference

    See COOKING.

  • FOOTBALL

    Houchang Chehabi

    (soccer). The game of football was introduced to Persia in the first two decades of the 20th century by British residents and American missionaries. 

  • FOQAHA

    Cross-Reference

    plural of faqih “Islamic jurist.” See  FEQH.

  • FOQQĀʿ

    Sayyed Mohammad Dabirsiaghi

    Early dictionaries describe foqqāʿ as a kind of barley wine or beer, but the semantic range later expanded to include juices from dried raisins, fruits, honey, and other ingredients.Both Persian and Arabic literature abound with references to foqqāʿ.

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  • FORĀT

    Cross-reference

    See EUPHRATES.

  • FORĀT B. EBRĀHĪM

    Meir M. Bar-Asher

    Shiʿite(most probably Imami) Koran commentator and Hadith scholar. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, but the time he flourished can be estimated by the dates of the scholars whom he quoted or who transmitted Hadith on his authority.

  • FORĀT MAYSĀN

    Cross-reference

    See BAHMAN ARDAŠĪR.

  • FOREIGN AFFAIRS

    Willem Floor

    administration and ministry of foreign affairs.

  • FOREIGN EXCHANGE

    Cross-reference

    See ECONOMY.

  • FOREIGN POLICY

    Cross-Reference

    See FOREIGN AFFAIRS; ANGLO-IRANIAN RELATIONS; ANGLO-PERSIAN AGREEMENT of 1919; ANGLO-PERSIAN WAR; ANGLO-RUSSIAN CONVENTION of 1907; and under individual countries and treaties.

  • FORESTS AND FORESTRY

    Multiple Authors

    i. Forests and Forestry in Persia. ii. Forests and Forestry in Afghanistan.

  • FORESTS AND FORESTRY i. In Persia

    Eckart Ehlers

    Less than 2 percent of Persia is covered by forests, while another 8 to 9 percent may be regarded as depleted former forest areas. Altogether, 150-160,000 km² are, or have been, densely forested areas.

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  • FORESTS AND FORESTRY ii. In Afghanistan

    Cross-Reference

    See AFGHANISTAN xiii.

  • FORGERIES

    Multiple Authors

    of art objects and manuscripts. i. Introduction. ii. Of Pre-Islamic Art Objects. iii. Of Islamic Art. iv. Of Manuscripts.

  • FORGERIES i. INTRODUCTION

    Abolala Soudavar

    Early in the Islamic era, Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī described in his al-Aṯār al-bāqīa how emergent Islamic rulers of Persia had forged their lineage and invented connections with previous dynasties in order to affirm their own legitimacy.

  • FORGERIES ii. OF PRE-ISLAMIC ART OBJECTS

    Oscar White Muscarella

    Two kinds of forgeries affect the study of ancient Iranian artifacts: the modern creation of an object falsely presented as an ancient artifact, and the assertion that an unexcavated object comes from a specifically named site, thereby effectively forging its provenience.

  • FORGERIES iii. OF ISLAMIC ART

    Sheila S. Blair

    Medieval Arabic and Persian literature contain numerous anecdotes about the forging of manuscripts, but it was only in the late 19th century that forging Persian works of Islamic art became a widespread phenomenon.

  • FORGERIES iv. OF ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS

    Francis Richard

    Manuscripts in Arabic script have been forged or tampered with to enhance the value of a manuscript and to prove its antiquity.

  • FORṢAT-AL-DAWLA

    Manouchehr Kasheff

    (1854-1920), pen name of the poet, scholar, and artist Mīrzā Moḥammad-Naṣīr Ḥosaynī Šīrāzī. In 1908 he was appointed the first director of the Shiraz branch of the Department of Education. In Fārs he arranged for the establishment of modern schools and for the education of tribal children.

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  • FORSTER, GEORGE

    Michael J. Franklin

    (1752-91), an East India Company civil servant, traveller, writer, and diplomatist.

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  • FORTIFICATIONS

    Wolfram Kleiss

    The present article deals with the fortified passages and defenses that are implied under the term bārū. Certain passes in Persia still feature barriers going back to the Achaemenid period. 

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