Table of Contents

• 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.

• 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

• 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 Historical documents have little mention of Zefra.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.

• ZEKRAWAYH B. MEHRAWAYH

  Heinz Halm

  10th-century Ismaʿili missionary in Iraq.

• 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.

• ZEMESTĀN-E 62

  ʿAli Ferdowsi

  (Winter of 62, 1987), a novel published by the well-known and prolific Persian novelist Esmāʿil Fasih.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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,

• ẒOHURI TORŠIZI

  Paul E. Losensky

  Mollā Nur-al-Din Moḥammad (d. 1025/1616), Persian poet.

• 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. 

• 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."