قابوس
Ghabus refers to a classical Persian male name, the Qabus-name (1082 CE) one of the earliest Persian prose works on ethics, and Gonbad-e Qabus, a UNESCO-listed brick tower from 1006 CE.
Glossary
شاهنامه
The Shahnameh is Ferdowsi’s epic poem, around 50,000 couplets covering the mythological and historical kings of pre-Islamic Iran. It is the cultural pillar of Iranian identity.
فردوسی
Ferdowsi is the tenth-century poet of Tus who wrote the Shahnameh in nearly pure Persian, defending the language against Arabic dominance. He is considered the national poet of Iran.
مولانا
Mowlana is the Persian name for the thirteenth-century poet known in English as Rumi. Iranians, Afghans, and Tajiks call him Mowlana, “our master,” not Rumi.
سعدی
Saadi is the thirteenth-century Shirazi poet who wrote the Bustan and the Golestan. His Bani Adam verse on shared humanity is inscribed at the United Nations building in New York.
حافظیه
Hafezieh is the garden tomb of the poet Hafez in Shiraz, rebuilt in its current form in 1935. Iranians visit to read fal-e Hafez, opening the Divan to a random page for guidance.
تخت جمشید
Takht-e Jamshid, known abroad as Persepolis, was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Darius I in 518 BCE and burned by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE.
کیش
Kish is a small island in the Persian Gulf and a free-trade zone, with visa-free entry, duty-free shopping, and a tourism economy that feels distinct from mainland Iran.
کرمان
Kerman is the capital of Iran’s largest province by area, a high-desert city of copper mines and pistachio orchards, and the hometown of Qasem Soleimani.
قم
Qom is Iran’s clerical center and second-most-sacred city, home to the Hazrat-e Masumeh shrine and the seminaries that train most of the country’s senior Shia clergy.