Table of Contents
-
MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR
C. Edmund Bosworth
the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Āmu Daryā.
-
MAʿĀYEB AL-REJĀL
Afsaneh Najmabadi
a treatise written in 1894 by Bibi Ḵānom Estarābādi/Astarābādi as a counterargument to the anonymous Taʾdib al-neswān/Taʾdib al-nesāʾ, a tract on how to discipline women, published in the mid-19th century.
-
MACHALSKI, FRANCISZEK
Anna Krasnowolska
(1904-1979), Polish Iranist. Some of his best papers are devoted to cultural and political life in Pahlavi Persia.
-
MACKENZIE, DAVID NEIL
Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst
Believing that the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies would be the institution most suited to his interests, Mackenzie enrolled there in September 1948. Because Pashto was not offered, he chose Persian, and completed the three-year B.A. course in 1951.
This Article Has Images/Tables. -
MADĀʾEN
Michael Morony
the Sasanian metropolitan area of several contiguous cities, on both sides of the Tigris and connected by floating bridges, about 35 km southeast of Abbasid Baghdad.
-
MADĀR AL-AFĀŻEL
Solomon Bayevsky
dictionary of the Persian language compiled in 1001/1593 by the poet and historian Allāh-dād Fayżī b. Asad al-ʿOlamāʾ ʿAli-šir Serhendi.
-
MĀDAR-E SOLAYMĀN
Cross-Reference
"Solaymān's mother," local name of the tomb of Cyrus. See CYRUS v. The Tomb of Cyrus.
-
MĀDAYĀN Ī HAZĀR DĀDESTĀN
Maria Macuch
(Book of a Thousand Judgements), Pahlavi Law-Book from the late Sasanian period (first half of the seventh century).
-
MĀDDA TĀRIḴ
Paul Losensky
chronogram poem, a poetic genre characterized by the inclusion of the year in which an event occurred.
-
MADRASA
Cross-Reference
school for the study of the Islamic sciences and related subjects. For the institution, see under entry EDUCATION: iv. The Medieval Madrasa, v. The Madrasa In ShiʿIte Persia; vi. The Madrasa In Sunni Kurdistan. Other entries contain passing references to madrasas in relation to specific mosques; see, e.g., GOWHAR-ŠĀD MOSQUE, BĪBĪ KHANOM MOSQUE. For the architecture of madrasas, see ISFAHAN x. Monuments x(4). Madrasa.
-
MAFĀTIḤ AL-ʿOLUM
George Saliba
(Keys to sciences) by Ḵᵛārazmi, a book in which key terms used by various classes of scholars, artisans, state officials, and others are explained (comp. ca. 366/976).
-
MAGI
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
the only recorded designation of priests of all western Iranians during the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian (mgw), and Sasanian periods.
-
MAGIC i. MAGICAL ELEMENTS IN THE AVESTA AND NĒRANG LITERATURE
Antonio Panaino
The presence of magical elements in the strict sense in Avestan literature has been considered rare.
-
MAGIC ii. IN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD
Mahmud Omidsalar
Magic can be briefly described as the art of influencing the course of events by the occult control of natural phenomena through the application of ritual observances acquired through a study of esoteric and often closely guarded corpus of knowledge and traditions.
-
MAGOPHONIA
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
An appropriate Iranian word for magophonia is the Sogdian mwγzt- (killing of the Magi).
-
MĀH YAŠT
William W. Malandra
one of what have been termed ‘minor Yašts’ of the Avesta; it is dedicated to the moon.
-
MAḤALLĀTI, Moḥammad
Javad Golmohammadi
a master calligrapher of the Timurid period, known only through three surviving works on wood and stone (a cenotaph, a door, and a stone plaque), which reflect the stylistic influence of the Timurid prince and master calligrapher Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Bāysonqor (d. 1493).
This Article Has Images/Tables. -
MĀHĀNI, ABU ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD
Bijan Vahabzadeh
mathematician and astronomer from Māhān, near Kerman, Iran, who flourished in the second half of the 9th century; he was a learned arithmetician and geometer, generally recognized among his peers.
-
MAHĀRLU LAKE
Karāmat-Allāh Afsar
a picturesque, rather extensive body of water to the southeast of Shiraz.
-
MAḤĀSEN EṢFAHĀN
David Durand-Guédy
(The beauties of Isfahan), a book extolling Isfahan, written by Mofażżal b. Saʿd Māfarruḵi during the reign of the Saljuq sultan Malekšāh.