Table of Contents

• ĀB

  Multiple Authors

  Persian word meaning “water.”

• ĀB i. The concept of water in ancient Iranian culture

  Mary Boyce

  The ancient Iranians respected water as the source of life, which nourished plants, animals, and men. In their cosmology water was the second of the seven “creations.”

• ĀB ii. Water in Muslim Iranian culture

  I. K. Poonawala

  Water constitutes an essential element in Islamic ritual, as a means of purification, and serves as a common theme in folklore. 

• ĀB iii. The hydrology and water resources of the Iranian plateau

  P. Beaumont

  The Iranian plateau is a large area of inland (endoreic) drainage in central Iran bounded to the north by the Alburz mountains, to the west and south by the Zagros mountains, and to the east by a series of ranges referred to as the Eastern Iranian Highlands.

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• ĀB-ANBĀR

  R. Holod, M. Sotūda

  "Water reservoir,” a term commonly used throughout Iran as a designation for roofed underground water cisterns.

• ĀB-ANBĀR i. History

  R. Holod

  The āb-anbār was one of the constructions developed in Iran as part of a water management system in areas reliant on permanent (springs, qanāt/kāriz) or on seasonal (rain) water.

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• AB-ANBĀR ii. Construction

  M. Sotūda

  Cisterns are built in towns and villages throughout Iran, as well as at crossroads, caravanseries, and hospices (rebāṭ). While town cisterns may be filled with rain water or from qanāts, most āb-anbārs along caravan routes are filled from the spring torrents of nearby streams.

• ĀB-E DEZ

  H. Gaube

  a major river of Ḵūzestān and the one most vital to its economy. It rises in the central Zagros mountains about 20 km northeast of Borūǰerd near the village of Čahār Borra.

• ĀB-E GARM

  E. Ehlers

  “warm water.” Hot springs and mineral springs in Iran. The Alborz range as a whole, particularly the central area around the Damāvand volcano, forms the most extensive region of thermal and mineral springs in Iran. 

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• ĀB-E ḤAYĀT

  Cross-Reference

  Āb-e Ḥayāt, also called ʿAyn al-Ḥayāt or Nahr al-Ḥayāt, meaning the fountain of life, is associated with Ḵeżr, who is identified with the unnamed companion of Moses in the Koran (18:65-82). See ĀB ii. Water in Muslim Iranian culture.

• ĀB-E ĪSTĀDA

  C. E. Bosworth

  “Still water,” a salt lake in the province of Ḡazna in modern Afghanistan, lying 30 km southeast of the present Ḡazna-Kandahār highway and 100 km south of Ḡazna itself.

• ĀB-ḠŪRA

  N. Ramazani

  (or ĀB-E ḠŪRA), the juice of unripe grapes, used in Persian cuisine.

• ĀB-GŪŠT

  EIr and N. Ramazani

  “Meat juice,” a popular Persian meat-based soup or stew, consisting of lamb, some legume, and herb and seasoning.

• ĀB-NĀHĪD

  Mary Boyce

   “Nāhid of the Water,” a Zoroastrian woman’s name, first attested in the poem Vis o Rāmīn.

• ĀB-ZŌHR

  Mary Boyce

  “Offering of water,” the Middle Persian form of a Zoroastrian technical term, Av. Ape zaoθra. Making the offering of water is the culminating rite of the main Zoroastrian act of worship, the yasna; and preparing and consecrating it is at the center of the rituals of the second part of this service.

• ABAD

  Joseph van Ess

  “Eternity a parte post,” Arabic theological term meaning “eternity a parte post” (already in early Muʿtazilite theology); it corresponds to Greek atéleuton. It sometimes also serves as a general term for unlimited time (dahr).

• ĀBĀDA

  C. E. Bosworth

  Name of (1) a small town in northern Fārs province, and (2) a medieval town near the northern shore of Lake Baḵtegān in Fārs.

• ĀBĀDĀN

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton, X. de Planhol

  City and island in the Ḵūzestān province at the head of the Persian Gulf.

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• ĀBĀDĪ

  Ahmad Ashraf

  “Settlement, inhabited space,” Persian term usally applied to the rural environment; in colloquial usage it often refers to towns and cities as well.

• ABĀLIŠ

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  Zoroastrian of the 9th century A.D. who apostatized to Islam.