Table of Contents
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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).
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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).
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ZĀDUYA
Touraj Daryaee
a Persian noble in the 7th century CE who was instrumental in the crowning of Farroḵzād Ḵosrow as Sasanian king.
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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.
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ẒAHIR-AL-DAWLA, EBRĀHIM KHAN
Mehrnoush Soroush
(d. Tehran, 1240/1824), military leader and governor of Kermān under Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar.
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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.
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ZAMYĀD YAŠT
Pallan Ichaporia
Yašt 19, the last in sequence of the great pieces of the Yašt hymn collection of the Younger Avesta.
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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.”
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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).
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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.
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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).
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ZARANGIANA
Cross-Reference
territory around Lake Hāmun and the Helmand river in modern Sistān. See DRANGIANA.
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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.
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ZARINAIA
Rüdiger Schmitt
legendary Saka queen during the reign of the likewise legendary Median king Astibaras.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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ZĀYČA
Enrico G. Raffaelli
Middle Persian term meaning "birth chart, horoscope."
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ZAYN AL-AḴBĀR
Cross-Reference
a history written in 11th century by Gardizi. See GARDIZI.
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ZAYN-AL-ʿĀBEDIN MARʿAŠI MAUSOLEUM
SANDRA AUBE
a tomb-shrine in Sāri, Māzandarān, where Sayyed Yaḥyā Marʿaši is buried.
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ZAYNAB BEGUM
Kioumars Ghereghlou
(d. Qazvin, 1640), the fourth daughter of Shah Ṭahmāsp and one of the most influential princesses in Safavid Iran.
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ZEFRA
Multiple Authors
mountainous district and village northeast of Isfahan, best known for its dialect. This article is divided into two sections: i. The district ii. The dialect
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ZEFRA i. The District
Mohammad-Hasan Raja’i Zefra’i and Habib Borjian
mountainous district and village northeast of Isfahan. Historical documents have little mention of Zefra. Nevertheless the village is embellished with a fine congregational mosque from the Saljuq era with subsequent renovations; the mosque’s antique gate and pulpit are dated 790/1388 and 791/1389, respectively.
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ZEǏMAL’, Evegeniǐ Vladislavovich
Alexander Nikitin
(1932-1998), Russian numismatist and historian of ancient Iran and Central Asia.
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ZEKRAWAYH B. MEHRAWAYH
Heinz Halm
10th-century Ismaʿili missionary in Iraq.
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ẒELLI, REZĀQOLI MIRZĀ
Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi
(1906-1945), singer. He had a clear voice with wide range, which his distinct, beautiful yodeling (taḥrir) made especially enchanting. His singing is an example of the Tehran singing school. He died of tuberculosis.
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ZEMESTĀN-E 62
ʿAli Ferdowsi
(Winter of 62, 1987), a novel published by the well-known and prolific Persian novelist Esmāʿil Fasih.
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ZENDA BE GUR
SOHILA SAREMI
“Zenda be gur” is a first-person narrative featuring the notes of a young writer in his sickbed in Paris; his unfortunate existence; his disgust and despondency; his horrible nightmares; his desire to end his life; his plots for a “successful suicide,” and how he tortures himself throughout in his failure to attain his goal.
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ZHUKOVSKIĬ, Valentin Alekseevich
Firuza Abdullaeva
(1858-1918), one of the most prominent representatives of Russian, namely St. Petersburg, Oriental studies. The scholarly interests of Zhukovskiĭ were extremely wide, covering the whole range of subjects from dialectology and folklore to archeology. His archives contain papers on many different subjects; some of them still await publication.
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ŻIĀʾ-AL-SALṬANA
Dominic Parviz Brookshaw
(1799-1873), Šāh Begom, seventh daughter of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834), private secretary to him, calligrapher and poet.
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ZIAPOUR, JALIL
Nojan Medinei
(1920-1999), painter, art critic, and scholar, who played a pioneering role in the establishment of modern arts in Iran.
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ZIGGURAT
Michael Herles
In Iran, buildings considered ziggurats or high temples can be distinguished from Mesopotamian ziggurats by their means of access. External flights of steps are always missing from monumental buildings in Iran, yet they are at all times present in Mesopotamia. In Iran, monumental buildings were accessible by ramps.
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ZIWIYE
Oscar White Muscarella
name of an archeological site in northwestern Iran at which a trove of objects known as the “Ziwiye Treasure” was reputedly found.
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ZIYARIDS
C. Edmund Bosworth
(Āl-e Ziār), a minor Islamic dynasty of the Caspian coastlands (931-ca. 1090). They ruled first in northern Iran, and then in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān.
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ZODIAC
Antonio Panaino
The origin and development of the idea of a zodiacal circle have been much debated, but now there is a general consensus that a kind of zodiacal belt must have been defined by Babylonian astronomers as early as 700 BCE. In this period the “path” followed by the planets, sun, and moon was divided into 15 constellations.
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ẒOHUR-AL-ḤAQQ
Moojan Momen
(also called Tāriḵ-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq and Ketāb-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq) the most comprehensive history of the first century of the Bahai faith yet written, compiled in nine volumes by Mirzā Asad-Allāh,
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ẒOHURI TORŠIZI
Paul E. Losensky
Mollā Nur-al-Din Moḥammad (d. 1025/1616), Persian poet.
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ZOROASTER
Multiple Authors
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.
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ZOROASTER i. THE NAME
Rüdiger Schmitt
The authentic form of Zoroaster’s name is that attested in his own songs, the Gathas: Old Av. Zaraθuštra-, on which are based regular derivatives like zaraθuštri- “descending from Zoroaster."
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ZOROASTER ii. GENERAL SURVEY
W. W. Malandra
“Zoroaster” is 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.
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ZOROASTER iii. ZOROASTER IN THE AVESTA
Manfred Hutter
Zaraθuštra is considered the founder of the Mazdayasnian religion who lived in Eastern Iran during the end of the second millenium BCE.
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ZOROASTER iv. In the Pahlavi Books
A. V. Williams
Although Pahlavi was spoken as long ago as the 3rd century BCE, most of the written works that survive were compiled from older Zoroastrian material in the period after the Muslim conquest up to the 10th century CE.
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ZOROASTER v. AS PERCEIVED BY THE GREEKS
Roger Beck
The Greek constructions of Zoroaster relate to the historical Zoroaster and to the Zoroaster of the Zoroastrian faith in one respect only. The Greeks knew that Zoroaster was the “prophet,” in the sense of the human founder, of the national Persian religion of their times.
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ZOROASTER vi. AS PERCEIVED IN WESTERN EUROPE
Michael Stausberg
There is a continuous tradition of reports about Zoroaster among early and later medieval Christian historians, chroniclers, and annalists. In slightly modified form, this tradition continues through the early modern periods stretching from Humanism to Enlightenment.
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ZOROASTER vii. AS PERCEIVED BY LATER ZOROASTRIANS
Jenny Rose
This entry treats the development of the concept and image of Zoroaster among the Zoroastrians of Persia and India after the Islamic conquest (10th century onwards).
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ZOROASTRIAN RITUALS
Michael Stausberg
Ritual has been variously theorized in recent decades. While the category remains elusive, the formative social importance of ritual is by now generally acknowledged even in Zoroastrian studies.
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ZOROASTRIANISM
Multiple Authors
Historical reviews
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ZOROASTRIANISM i. HISTORICAL REVIEW UP TO THE ARAB CONQUEST
William W. Malandra
This article presents an overview of the history of Zoroastrianism from its beginnings through the 9th and 10th centuries CE. Details of different periods and specific issues relating to Zoroastrianism are discussed in the relevant separate entries.
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ZOROASTRIANISM ii. Historical Review: from the Arab Conquest to Modern Times
Jamsheed K. Choksy
As Zoroastrians in the seventh century began slowly but steadily adopting Islam, the magi attempted to preserve their religion’s beliefs, traditions, and lore by writing them down.
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ZOROASTRIANS IN IRAN
Multiple Authors
The subject of the history and status of the Zoroastrian communities of Iran.
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ZOROASTRIANS IN IRAN iv. Between the Constitutional and the Islamic Revolutions
Janet Kestenberg Amighi
A group of Zoroastrians emigrated to Tehran and thrived in business and culture through historical events, after escaping the Qajari persecution in Yazd and Kerman.
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ZOROASTRIANS OF 19TH-CENTURY YAZD AND KERMAN
Janet Kestenberg Amighi
The main focus of this entry is on the nature of pressures exerted on the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kerman to convert away from their religion, and the Zoroastrian responses of both conversion and persistence during the 19th century. It will cover four themes: Muslim treatment of Zoroastrians and pressures to convert, Zoroastrian modes of resistance and submission, the Parsi contribution to Zoroastrian revivalism, and a comparison of Zoroastrian responses to Muslim pressures to convert versus responses to Bahai forms of proselytization.
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ZOROASTRIANS OF IRAN vi. Linguistic Documentation
Saloumeh Gholami
This article focuses on the importance of documenting the Zoroastrian dialects of Yazd and Kerman, also known as Zoroastrian Dari (a term not to be confused with classical Persian Dari or Dari in Afghanistan).
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ZRANKA
Cross-Reference
territory around Lake Hāmun and the Helmand river in modern Sistan. See DRANGIANA.
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ZUR-ḴĀNA
Houchang E. Chehabi
(lit. “house of strength”), the traditional gymnasium of urban Persia and adjacent lands.
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ZURVAN
Albert de Jong
ancient Zoroastrian deity of Time. Although the etymology of the Avestan word causes difficulty, there is consensus over its basic meaning, “period (of time).”
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ZURVANISM
Albert de Jong
a hypothetical religious movement in the history of Zoroastrianism. The myth of Zurvan is fairly well known from Armenian, Syriac, Greek, and Arabic sources, but it is not to be found in any Zoroastrian source.
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ZURWĀNDĀD
Touraj Daryaee
the eldest son of the grand vizier (wuzurg framādār) Mehr Narseh, who appointed him to the high religious office of chief hērbed.
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Zār Songs: Vorāra, Yo mama
music sample
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Žimnāstik muzikāl
music sample
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Z~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cross-Reference
list of all the figure and plate images in the Z entries