Encyclopaedia Iranica Online

in the Bactrian language. See KUSHAN DYNASTY ii. Inscriptions of the Kushans.

East Syrian monk (7th century CE); the monastery he founded in Ḵuzestān, in the mountains of Šuštar, exercised noteworthy influence on monastic practice in the Persian Gulf area and Fārs, as well as Beth Huzāye, during the 7th century. RABBAN ŠĀPUR, East Syrian monk (7th century CE).The main source concerning Rabban Šāpur is the Chronicle of Seert (LIV, Scher, 1919, II/2, pp. 459 [139]-461 [141]; see Chabot, 1896, p. 30, no. 55; Gismondi, 1897, p. 57-58). We learn the name of Šāpur’s village in Beth Huzāye (see AHVAZ i. HISTORY) was Ad-Dolāb. After c…

the charitable foundation ( abwāb al-berr) established by the physician, vizier, and historian Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh in an eastern suburb of Tabriz. RABʿ-E RAŠIDI , the charitable foundation ( abwāb al-berr) established by the physician, vizier, and historian Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh (ca. 1247-1318) in an eastern suburb of Tabriz (Wilber, no, 34, pp. 129-31). Due to Rašid-al-Din’s position as one of the chief ministers in the Il-khanid government, he accumulated a vast fortune, which he used to construct pious foundations in various places aroun…

19th-century Indian author of Persian works (d. 1268/1851-52). RĀBEṬ, ʿABD-AL-AḤAD, 19th-century Indian author of Persian works (d. 1268/1851-52). He was born at Amthi, the eldest son of Mawlawi Moḥammad-Fāʾeq, and was raised and educated in nearby Lucknow. He entered the service of the East India Company in 1240/1825 and rose to the position of sareštadār (reader) in the office of Colonel (later Sir) John Low, the British Resident at Lucknow (1831-42). At the request of the Resident’s second assistant, Lieutenant John Dowdeswell Shakespeare, Rābeṭ wrote his Waqāʾeʿ delpaḏir in 12…

(Thunder), the name of a newspaper published by Sayyed Żiyāʾ-al-Din Ṭabāṭabāʾi in Tehran, 1913-1921, with interruptions. RAʿD (Thunder), the name of a newspaper published by Sayyed Żiyāʾ-al-Din Ṭabāṭabāʾi in Tehran, from 5 Āḏar 1292 to 28 Bahman 1299/27 November 1913 to 18 February 1921, with interruptions. Raʿd was preceded by Šarq (east) and Barq (lightning), also published by Seyyed Żiyāʾ. The publishing life of Raʿd was divided into two periods. During the first period, which ended in 1916 when Sayyed Żiyāʾ departed for Russia, Raʿd was issued four times a week in the first…

(1939-2007) dramatist, short story writer, university lecturer, and an influential figure in popularizing theatre as an art in modern Iran, whose incorporation of colloquial Persian in his works, has contributed to the preservation of the dialects of the northern provinces. RADI, AKBAR (Akbar Rādi, b. Rasht, 31 October 1939; d. Tehran, 26 December 2007; Figure 1), dramatist, short story writer, and university lecturer. Radi was born to a middle class family and was raised in the city of Rasht, where he lived the first eleven years of his life until his fath…

(1909-1999), prominent poet. RAʿDI AZARAKHSHI, GHOLAM-ʿALI (Ḡolām-ʿAli Raʿdi Āḏaraḵaši, b. Tabriz, 20 September 1909; d. Tehran, 6 August 1999), prominent poet of the 20th century. Raʿdi Azarakhshi was born in Tabriz where his father, Moḥammad ʿAli Efteḵār Laškar, was an accountant (mostowfi). His paternal roots can be traced back to the mostowfis of Āštiān. His maternal ancestors were among the landowners of Tafreš who migrated to Tabriz with the crown prince, ʿAbbas Mirzā (Raʿdi Azarakhshi, 1991, p. 237). Raʿdi nevert…

(d. 1819), pen name of ḠOLĀM JILĀNI, scholar of Arabic and Persian literature, teacher at Rampur, and author of Dorr-e ma nẓum. RAFʿAT (REFʿAT), pen name ( taḵalloṣ) of ḠOLĀM JILĀNI (d. 27 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1234/17 October 1819), scholar of Arabic and Persian literature, teacher at Rampur, and author of a versified Persian “battlelogue” ( jang-nāma ) titled Dorr-e manẓum. Estimations of Ḡolām Jilāni’s date of birth range from ca. 1720 (Aḥmad-ʿAli Šawq, p. 284) to ca. 1742 (Mināʾi, p. 152). Qodrat-Allāh Šawq (p. 502), writing around 1774, describes him as a youth ( javān) and novice ( naw-mašq). Th…

(d. early 5th/11th cent.), scholar, littérateur, and author of works on Islamic ethics, Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic theology, and Arabic philology, as well as anthologies. RĀḠEB EṢFAHĀNI, Abul’l-Qāsem Ḥosayn b. Moḥammad b Mofażżal (d. early 5th/11th cent.), scholar, littérateur, and author of works on Islamic ethics, Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic theology, and Arabic philology, as well as anthologies. Next to nothing is known about his life, since he is hardly mentioned in major biographical dictionaries; and if he is mention…

one of the first Persian periodicals published by the Iranian community in the United States after the Iranian revolution of 1979. RAHAVARD ( Rahāvard), a Los Angeles-based quarterly (website: www.rahavard.com), founded by Hasan Shabaz (1921-2006), writer, journalist and translator, and one of the first Persian periodicals published by the Persian community in the U.S.A. after the Iranian revolution of 1979. Upon an invitation by Nāder Ṣāleḥ, the founder of the “Society of Iranian Residents of the USA,” Hasan Shahbaz, who had left Iran shortly after the …

pen name of prominent 20th century poet and lyricist Mohammad Hasan Mo'ayyeri. See MO'AYYERI, MOHAMMAD HASAN.

(1930-2000), modernist poet of 1960s-1990s, among the few of his contemporaries whose poems did not participate in the ideological discourse of the period in search of social justice and freedom, and whose rebellious discontent manifested itself more in his challenging of social norms and codes of behavior. RAHMANI, NOSRAT (Noṣrat Raḥmāni, b. Tehran, 10 Esfand 1308 Š./1 March 1930; d. Rasht, 27 Ḵordād 1379 Š./16 June 2000), noted poet of the1960s-90s (Figure 1, Figure 2) LIFE Nosrat Rahmani was born to Assadollāh Rahmani, an automobile mechanic with a keen interest in c…

(Guide to life), a biweekly magazine published in Tehran, 1940-41. RĀHNEMĀ-YE ZENDAGI (The guide to life), a biweekly magazine published in Tehran by the then well-known novelist and translator Ḥosaynqoli Mostaʿān from 15 November 1940 to 16 December 1941. Starting with the sixth issue, Māhṭalʿat Pesyān was named as chief editor. Rāhnemā-ye zendagi was a popular magazine due to the variety of topics that it featured, as well as to a series of popular love stories by Ḥ. M. Ḥamid (a pen name of Mostaʿān) that were published separately and given awa…

During the three decades between the 1850s and the 1880s various foreign concerns attempted to introduce railways to Persia, but these did not materialize. RAILROADS i. THE FIRST RAILROAD BUILT AND OPERATED IN PERSIA During the three decades between the 1850s and the 1880s various French, Belgian, British, Russian and American concerns attempted to introduce railways to Persia, but these did not materialize, either due to lack of adequate capital or because of the Anglo-Russian rivalry (Jamālzāda, pp. 87-88; Lorini, pp. 158-59; …

(lit.: “return”), theological term that has had many meanings according to the context in which it was professed. RAJʿA (lit.: “return”). Abuʾl-Ḥasan Ašʿari (q.v., d. 935) introduces this concept in his work Maqālāt al-eslāmiyin as a belief held by a large majority of the “Rāfeża”—which in this context means Imami Shiʿites (Ašʿari, p. 46; on the term in general see Kohlberg, “Rāfiḍa”). In his Ketāb al-enteṣār, the Muʿtazilite Ḵayyāṭ (d. between /902 and 912) also attributes this doctrine to the Rāfeża, all the while adding that the latter conceal it from non- Shiʿites (Ḵayy…

(1931-2003), composer, vocalist, and flute player. RAM, EMAD (ʿEmād Rām, b. Sāri, Māzandarān, 11 Esfand 1309 Š./3 March 1931; d. Germany, 3 Ḵordād 1382 Š./24 May 2003), composer, vocalist, and flute player. Ram started playing the flute in elementary school. By age 12 he was able to play the folk songs of Māzandarān as well as the music he had heard on the radio. His experiments with various reed instruments enabled him to learn and play Persian folk songs on the flute at an early age, which astonished his audiences. Upon graduation from the Sāri School of Agriculture, he was employe…

a town and sub-province in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. RĀMHORMOZ, town and sub-province in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. The town is located at lat 31°16′ N, long 49°36′ E, elev. 587 feet, about 60 miles east of Ahvāz, 70 miles northwest of Behbahān, and 100 miles southeast of Šuštar. The sub-province ( šahrestān) has one district ( baḵš), and four sub-districts ( dehestān): Abu’l-Fāres, Ḥuma-ye šarqi, Ḥuma-ye ḡarbi, and Solṭānābād. Rāmhormoz is the only town in the sub-province and is bordered in the north by Bāḡ-e Malek and Haftgel …

an early 17th-century Persian translation of an ancient Indian love story epic in Vālmiki’s Sanskrit Rāmāya ṇ a that narrates the earthly career of Rām, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and his wife Sitā. It was translated in the maṯnawi genre by Masiḥ Saʿd-Allāh Pānipati. RĀM WA SITĀ, an early 17th-century Persian translation of an ancient Indian love story epic in Vālmiki’s Sanskrit Rāmāya ṇ a (ca. the 2nd cent. BCE) that narrates the earthly career of Rām (Skr. Rāma), an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and his wife Sitā. It was translated in the maṯnawi genre by Masiḥ Saʿd-Allāh Pānipat…

old district encompassing eastern Gilān in the 19th century. It became a part of Lāhijān sub-province ( šahrestān) in 1937 and was divided between the sub-provinces of Langarud and Rudsar in the 1960s. When Rudsar was subdivided in 1998 into the two sub-provinces of Amlaš and Rudsar, the name Rānekuh was given to the southern, mountainous district ( baḵš) of Amlaš sub-province. See LANGARUD, RUDSAR.

Download this sound. title Raqs: Dozala va Tombak genre/topic Dance language   performer   instrument Dozāla; tombak composer   author/poet   first line of poem recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 3:16 source Regional Music of Iran. Hasht Behesht. Mahoor Institute of Culture and Art, 2005 (M.CD-25, CD2), track 7.Used with permission of the publisher note Collection and accompanying notes by Hoseyn Hamidi EIr entries DOZĀLA