i.—Geography The geological background: The alignments of Iran’s principal topographie features, represented by the Kūhhā-yi Alburz and the Zagros Chain, are west to east and north-west to south-east, respectively. In broad context, the Alburz is a continuation of the European Alpine structures, while the Zagros chain has been linked through Cyprus with the Dinaric Alps (Fisher, 1956). The structure of the mountain rim of the country has been influenced strongly by tectonic movements which have n…

(a.), denotes the act of violating a religious covenant ( ʿahd or mīt̲h̲āḳ ), occasionally used in S̲h̲īʿsm and, more commonly, Bahāʾism [ q.v.], where the standard English term is “covenant-breaking”. The terms ʿahd and mīt̲h̲āḳ are Ḳurʾānic (II, 27, 63, 83; III, 81; VIII, 56; XIII, 20, ¶ 25; XVI, 91, etc.), where they refer to God’s general covenant with men or His prophets, or to specific covenants, such as that with the Banū Isrāʾīl [see mīt̲h̲āḳ ]. In S̲h̲īʾī tradition, the Prophet entered into a specific mīt̲h̲āḳ concerning the succession of ʿAlī. Each Imām in turn enters int…

, conventional form Shoghi Effendi (b. 1 March 1897, d. 4 November 1957), head or Guardian of the Bahāʾī religion 1921-57. The great-grandson of Mīrzā Ḥusayn ʿAlī Nūrī Bahāʾ Allāh [ q.v.], the sect’s founder, Shoghi was born in Haifa, Palestine, for some time the home of his grandfather, ʿAbbās Efendi ʿAbd al-Bahāʾ [ q.v.] and later the international centre for the movement. Shoghi was educated in Haifa and at the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, after which he spent about a year at Balliol College, Oxford. In November 1921, he was recalled to Palestine on the death of ʿAbbās Efendi. In his…

ʿAbd Allāh (Abdullah Cevdet) Turkish poet, translator, politician, free-thinker and publicist. He was born of the Kurdish family of the ʿUmar Og̲h̲ullari̊, at ʿArabgīr, on 3 D̲j̲umādā II 1286/9 September 1869. Having completed his studies at the military school at Maʿmūret el-ʿAzīz (Elâziǧ), he came to Istanbul about the age of 15 to attend the Army Medical School. There, in May 1889, he became a founder-member of the Ottoman Society for Union and Progress. By 1891 he had published four small volumes of poetry, the second of which opened with the wellknown Naʿt-i S̲h̲erīf …

, sayyid aḥmad , Iranian historian, linguist, jurist and ideologist. Born on 29 September 1890 and educated in Tabrīz, he entered the theological profession in 1910, but soon left it because of his liberal ideas and modernistic tendencies. In 1919, he entered the Ministry of Justice, which he left in 1929 to practise law, soon after returning a verdict against Riḍā S̲h̲āh’s royal court in favour of a group of peasants. He also taught history in the University of Tehrān, which he left in 1934 on an issue involving academic freedom. Kasrawī wrote several books on history and on language…

(a.), pl. maẓāhir , literally “place of outward appearance”, hence “manifestation, theophany”, a technical term used in a wide variety of contexts in ąīʿism, Ṣūfism, Bābism, and, in particular, Bahāʾism, where it is of central theological importance. At its broadest, the term may be applied to any visible appearance or expression of an invisible reality, reflecting the popular contrast between ẓāhir and bāṭin . In its more limited application, however, it refers to a type of theophany in which the divinity or its attributes are made vi…

, an important school of speculative theology within Twelver S̲h̲īʿism, influential mainly in Persia and ʿIrāḳ since the early 19th century. Although at times its leaders have been excommunicated and its doctrines condemned as heretical, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ism (also known as the Kas̲h̲fiyya) has accommodated itself fairly successfully with the majority Uṣūlī establishment and is generally regarded as a school ( mad̲h̲hab ) rather than a sect ( firḳa ). Bābism [see bāb , bābīs ] began in the 1840s as a radical development of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ī heterodoxy. 1. Early history. The origins of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲…

, the name of two places in Persia. I. Tihrān, a city of northern Persia. 1. Geographical position. 2. History to 1926. 3. The growth of Tihrān. (a). To ca 1870. (b). Urbanisation, monuments, cultural and socioeconomic life until the time of the Pahlavīs. (c). Since the advent of the Pahlavīs. II. Tihrān, the former name of a village or small town in the modern province of Iṣfahān. I. Tihrān, older form (in use until the earlier 20th century) Ṭihrān (Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, iv, 51, gives both forms, with Ṭihrān as the head word; al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, i…

(a.), reform, reformism. i.—The Arab world In modern Arabic, the term iṣlāḥ is used for “reform” (cf.: RALA, xxi (1386/1966), 351, no. 15) in the general sense: in contemporary Islamic litera-Jure it denotes more specifically orthodox reformism of the type that emerges in the doctrinal teachings of Muḥammad ʿAbduh, in the writings of Ras̲h̲īd Riḍā, and in the numerous Muslim authors who are influenced by these two masters and, like them, consider themselves disciples of the Salafiyya (see below). Iṣlāḥ will be examined under the foliowing general head…