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(in Kurdish, Send̲j̲āwī/Sind̲j̲āwī), a Kurdish tribe of Persia, playing an important role in the inter-tribal relations of western Persia, on account of its loyalty to the Iranian state and its defence of the frontiers, confronting foreign powers— Russian, British and in particular, the Ottomans. Localisation of the tribe. The areas of habitation and of agricultural and stock-rearing activity comprised two regions: that of transhumance in summer and that of settled residence in winter. The territories of transhumance ( ḳis̲h̲lāḳ ) included the regions…

, a historical figure of the highest importance to the sect known as Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ ¶ [ q.v.], who lived in the 15th century (textual variants: Seḥāk, Sihāk, Sohāk, Ṣoḥāk) a name of Biblical origin (Isaac) but incorporated into the Islamic tradition and attested in the Ḳurʾān in the form Isḥāḳ. The uncertainties which remain concerning the dates of Sulṭān Sehāk have recently been to a great extent clarified and resolved, following the discovery of original sources and the publication of studies assiduously conducted over the past forty years (see Bibl .) The mystical…

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…