Table of Contents

• ADLER, ELKAN NATHAN

  Dalia Yasharpour

  avid traveler and collector of Hebrew, Judeo-Persian, and Judeo-Tajik manuscripts from the Jewish Persian and Bukharan communities (1861-1946). In 1921, personal circumstances compelled Adler to sell his manuscript and book collections to the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati and the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.

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• ADMINISTRATION in Iran

  Multiple Authors

  This entry covers state administration in Iran in the modern period, from the rise of the Safavids to the fall of the Pahlavis in 1979. 

• ADMINISTRATION vi. Safavid, Zand, and Qajar periods

  S. Bakhash

  The rise of the Safavids was marked by developments that significantly influenced the nature of political, military, and revenue administration.

• ADMINISTRATION vii. Pahlavi period

  R. Sheikholeslami

  The constitution of 1906 and the supplementary laws of 1907 provided the juridical foundation for a legal-rational state within which the legislature was empowered to establish and modify the administration.

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• ʿADNĪ, MAḤMŪD PĀŠĀ

  T. Yazici

  (879/1474), Ottoman vizier and poet, better known in Turkish literature by his pen name ʿAdnī.

• ADRAPANA

  C. J. Brunner

  the third station from the western border of “Upper Media” recorded by Isidore of Charax in the 1st century CE.

• ADRĀVVŪN

  M. F. Kanga

   Gujarati term for the Parsi betrothal ceremony (in Persian nāmzadī). 

• ADUKANAIŠA

  R. Schmitt

  (a-du-u-k-n-i-š-), name of the first month (March-April) of the Old Persian calendar.

• ĀDUR

  M. Boyce

  (and ādar) Middle Persian word for “fire;” the Avestan form is ātar (of unknown derivation), and the late form is arabicized in New Persian as āẕar.

• ĀDUR BURZĒN-MIHR

  M. Boyce

  an Ātaš Bahrām, i.e., a Zoroastrian sacred fire of the highest grade. 

• ĀDUR FARNBĀG

  M. Boyce

  an Ātaš Bahrām, that is, a Zoroastrian sacred fire of the highest grade, held to be one of the three great fires of ancient Iran, existing since creation.

• ĀDUR GUŠNASP

  M. Boyce

  an Ātaš Bahrām, that is, a Zoroastrian sacred fire of the highest grade, held to be one of the three great fires of ancient Iran, existing since creation.

• ĀDUR NARSEH

  A. Tafażżolī

  son of the Sasanian king Hormozd II (302-09 CE) and ruler for several months after his father.

• ĀDUR-ANĀHĪD

  Ph. Gignoux

  3rd century CE  Sasanian “queen of queens.”  

• ĀDUR-BŌZĒD

  A. Tafażżolī

  a Sasanian mobad of mobads (mowbedān mowbed) or high priest.

• ĀDURBĀD ĒMĒDĀN

  A. Tafażżolī

  second author of the 9th century CE Zoroastrian compilation, Dēnkard.  

• ĀDURBĀD Ī MAHRSPANDĀN

  A. Tafażżolī

  (“Ādurbād, son of Mahrspand”), Zoroastrian mobad of mobads (mowbedān mowbed) or high priest in the reign of the Sasanian king Šāpūr II (309-79 CE). 

• ĀDURFARNBAG Ī FARROXZĀDĀN

  A. Tafażżolī

  first author of the 9th century CE Zoroastrian compilation, the Dēnkard. 

• ĀDURFRĀZGIRD

  C. J. Brunner

  a brother of the Sasanian king Šāpūr II (309-79 CE) who is mentioned in the Syriac Acts of the Persian Martyrs.

• AELIANUS, CLAUDIUS

  M. L. Chaumont

  a sophist of the first third of the 3rd century CE, from Praenest near Rome. His chief service to Iranian history was the preservation of some data from the works of Ctesias of Cnidus, the Greek physician of Artaxerxes II.

• AĒŠMA

  J. P. Asmussen

  “wrath” in Younger Avestan, both metaphysically, as a distinct demon, and psychologically as the function and quality of that demon realized in man.

• ĀFARĪN LĀHŪRĪ

  Z. Ahmad and W. Kirmani

  Punjabi Persian poet (b. ca. 1070/1660, d. 1154/1741).

• ĀFARĪN-NĀMA

  J. Matīnī

  a poem in the motaqāreb meter by the 4th/10th century poet Abū Šakūr Balḵī.

• AFḠĀNĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN

  N. R. Keddie

  Outstanding ideologist and political activist of the late 19th century Muslim world, whose influence has continued strong in many Muslim countries (1254-1314/1838 or 39-97).

• AFGHAN

  Ch. M. Kieffer

  (afḡān), in current political usage, any citizen of Afghanistan, whatever his ethnic, tribal, or religious affiliation. According to the 1977 constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan (1973-78), all Afghans are equal in rights and obligations before the law.

• AFGHANI

  ʿA. Ḥabībī

  (afḡānī), the unit of currency in modern Afghanistan. 

• AFGHANISTAN

  Multiple Authors

  (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan), landlocked country located in Central Asia and bordered by Iran to the west, Pakistan to the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the north, and China to the far northeast.

• AFGHANISTAN i. Geography

  J. F. Shroder, Jr.

  Afghanistan has an extreme continental, arid climate which is characterized by desert, steppe, and highland temperature and precipitation regimes.

• AFGHANISTAN ii. Flora

  M. Šafīq Yūnos

  Climate studies have shown the importance of precipitation and altitude as conditioning factors for the diversity of Afghanistan’s flora.

• AFGHANISTAN iii. Fauna

  K. Habibi

  The Hindu Kush mountains have been a barrier to a westward dispersal of most elements of the Indian fauna realm, and as a result most of the fauna is typically Palearctic. 

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• AFGHANISTAN iv. Ethnography

  L. Dupree

  In their ethnolinguistic and physical variety the people of Afghanistan are as diverse as their country is in topography. Except in rural areas off the main lines of communications, few peoples maintain racial homogeneity.

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• AFGHANISTAN v. Languages

  Ch. M. Kieffer

  Best represented are the Iranian languages, followed by Turkish languages of recent import, and Indian languages which are either native (Nūrestānī and Dardic) or imported.

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• AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṧto

  G. Morgenstierne

  Paṧtō is an Iranic language spoken in south and southeastern Afghanistan, by recent settlers in northern Afghanistan, in Pakistan (North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan), and on the eastern border of Iran. 

• AFGHANISTAN vii. Parāčī

  G. Morgenstierne

  Parāčī is an Iranian language now spoken northeast of Kabul in the Šotol valley, north of Golbahār, and in the Ḡočūlān and Pačaḡān branches of the Neǰrao valley,  northeast of Golbahār. 

• AFGHANISTAN viii. Archeology

  N. H. Dupree

  The first careful reports on the antiquities of Afghanistan were provided by 19th-century travelers. Scientific exploration in Afghanistan began after September, 1922.                                      

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• AFGHANISTAN ix. Pre-Islamic Art

  F. Tissot

  Small, simple clay statues from the Neolithic period, which may be protective divinities, can be found in all sites from the Middle East to India.

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• AFGHANISTAN x. Political History

  D. Balland

  The year 1747 marks the definitive appearance of an Afghan political entity independent of both the Safavid and Mughal empires. 

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• AFGHANISTAN xi. Administration

  A. Ghani

  The form and function of Afghanistan’s administrative organizations have reflected the changing balance of power between centripetal and centrifugal forces. 

• AFGHANISTAN xii. Literature

  R. Farhādī

  Under Aḥmad Shah Dorrānī, Afghanistan continued to play its long-standing role as a center of Persian literature and a transmitter of literary currents between Transoxiana and Islamic India. 

• AFGHANISTAN xiii. FORESTS AND FORESTRY

  Xavier de Planhol

  The development of forests is limited in Afghanistan not only by the total quantity of rainfall, but also by its seasonal distribution with respect to the vegetative season.

• AFGHANISTAN xiv. AFGHAN REFUGEES IN IRAN

  Zuzanna Olszewska

  Afghan refugees make up a population of up to 3 million people of various ethnicities, who have settled in Iran since the communist coup of 1978 in Afghanistan.

• ĀFĪ, ALLĀHYĀR KHAN

  Z. Ahmad

  Poet, son of Nawwāb Amīr-al-dawla, the founder of the state of Tonk (b. 1233/1817-18, d. 21 Ramażān 1278/22 March 1861).

• ʿAFĪF

  N. H. Zaidi

  (d. ca. 1399), author of Tārīḵ-e Fīrūzšāhī, a Persian life of Fīrūz Shah Toḡloq (r. 1351-88).

• AFIFI, RAḤIM

  Jalal Matini

  (d. 1996), scholar and author of lexical guides and handbooks of mythology. 

• AFLĀKĪ

  T. Yazici

  author of texts on the virtues of Jalāl-al-dīn Rūmī and his disciples (13th-14th centuries).

• AFNĀN

  M. Momen

  (“twigs” or “branches”), term used in the Bahaʾi faith (initially by Bahāʾallāh) to designate certain lines of descent in the maternal family of the Bāb.

• AFRĀ

  A. Parsa

  Persian term for the maple tree (genus Acer), also embracing a few shrubs of the family Aceraceae.

• AFRAHĀṬ

  J. P. Asmussen

  name attested in Syriac (ʾfrhṭ) of a number of Iranian Christian churchmen.

• AFRAHĀṬ, YAʿQŪB

  J. P. Asmussen

  Persian bishop of the mid-4th century CE, author in Syriac.

• AFRĀSĪĀB

  E. Yarshater

  Turanian king and hero and Iran’s archenemy in its legendary history.

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