Table of Contents

  • ART IN IRAN iv. PARTHIAN Art

    S. B. Downey

    monuments generally included in discussions of Parthian art come from the periphery of the Parthian world—Syria, Mesopotamia, the edges of the Iranian plateau.

  • ART IN IRAN v. SASANIAN ART

    P. O. Harper

    There are major remains of many different types: monumental rock reliefs, silver vessels, stucco architectural decoration, and seals.

  • ART IN IRAN vi. PRE-ISLAMIC EASTERN IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA

    G. Azarpay

    The Hellenistic artistic tradition that was transplanted in the Orient in the wake of Alexander’s conquest of the Achaemenid empire provides the common denominator in the earliest monumental works of art from eastern Iran and Bactria. 

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • ART IN IRAN vii. ISLAMIC PRE-SAFAVID

    P. Soucek

    Of especial importance for the development of art in Islamic Iran was the cultural and artistic legacy of the immediate past.

  • ART IN IRAN viii. ISLAMIC CENTRAL ASIA

    G. A. Pugachenkova

    Under Islam the sculpture and mural painting previously displayed in Central Asia almost completely disappeared, and ornament took pride of place.

  • ART IN IRAN ix. SAFAVID To Qajar Periods

    A. Welch

    The arts of the Safavid period show a far more unitary development than in any other period of Iranian art. 

  • ART IN IRAN x. Qajar 1. General

    J. M. Scarce

    now increasingly recognized as a time of significant change in Persian society. Perhaps the most obvious influence was the impact of Western ideas and technology.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • ART IN IRAN x. Qajar 2. Painting

    B. W. Robinson

    like the Timurid style centuries before, had its origins outside the historical period from which it derives its name.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • ART IN IRAN xi. POST-QAJAR

    K. Emāmī

    About the mid-1950s, Iranian modernists started to receive official encouragement via the Department General of Fine Arts (later to become the Ministry of Arts and Culture).

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • ART IN IRAN xii. IRANIAN PRE-ISLAMIC ELEMENTS IN ISLAMIC ART

    Maria Vittoria Fontana

    have contributed significantly to the formation and development of Islamic art, and they can be easily recognized in various contexts, from town-planning to architecture, from the continuity of techniques of both manufacture and decoration to iconography and some of its symbols.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • ARTA

    Cross-Reference

    See ARDWAHIŠT and AŠA.

  • ARTABANUS (Arsacid kings)

    K. Schippmann

    name borne by several Arsacid kings.

  • ARTABANUS (Old Persian proper name)

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Latinized form of an Old Persian proper name.

  • ARTABAZANES

    C. J. Brunner

    autonomous ruler of Armenia who submitted to the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 220 B.C., when the latter invaded his country.

  • ARTABAZUS

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Old Iranian personal name.

  • ARTABĒ

    M. A. Dandamayev

    the Greek form of a Median and Old Persian measure of volume.

  • ARTACHAIĒS

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    Greek rendering of an Old Iranian name.

  • ARTAḪŠAR

    Cross-Reference

    See ARTOXARES.

  • ARTAMANIA

    M. Mayrhofer

    prince of Zi-ri-ba-ša-ni, who wrote a letter of devotion to the pharaoh of Egypt.

  • ARTAPHRENĒS

    P. Lecoq

    name given by Herodotus for the son of Hystaspes and brother of Darius I, and of various other Persians in Greek literature.

  • ARTAŠŠUMARA

    M. Mayrhofer

    a Mitannian king.

  • ARTASYRAS

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Old Iranian name *Ṛta-sūra “powerful through Arta”.

  • ARTATĀMA

    M. Mayrhofer

    king of Mitanni.

  • ARTAVARDIYA

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Old Persian personal name, meaning “doer of Justice.”

  • ARTAVASDES

    R. Schmitt

    Old Iranian male personal name.

  • ARTAXATA

    R. H. Hewsen

    a city of ancient Armenia founded ca. 176 B.C. by King Artaxias I.A

  • ARTAXERXES

    R. Schmitt

    throne name of several Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty.

  • ARTAXERXES I

    R. Schmitt

    a son of Xerxes I and Amestris.

  • ARTAXERXES II

    R. Schmitt

    Achaemenid Great King whose personal name is given as Arsaces.

  • ARTAXERXES III

    R. Schmitt

    throne name of Ochus, Achaemenid king (r. 359-58 to 338-37 B.C.).

  • ARTAXIAS I

    J. Russell

    reigned 189-160 B.C., founder of the Artaxiad dynasty in Greater Armenia.

  • ARTAZOSTRE

    J. Kellens

    a daughter of Darius the Great.

  • ARTEMBARĒS

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Old Iranian proper name * Ṛtam-para-, meaning “who encourages the order.”

  • ARTEMISIA

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    queen of the Achaemenid province of Caria.

  • ARTEMITA IN APOLLONIATIS

    M. L. Chaumont

    city of the Parthian period in eastern Iraq.

  • ARTĒŠTĀR

    W. Sundermann

    a learned calque on and translation of the Avestan raθaēštā.

  • ARTĒŠTĀRĀN SĀLĀR

    W. Sundermann

    “chief of the warriors,” a high-ranking title in Sasanian times. 

  • ARTHROPODS

    ʿA. Aḥmadī and R. G. Tuck, Jr.

    or ARTHROPODA, largest and undoubtedly most diverse animal phylum, comprising an estimated seventy-five to eighty percent of all known species in the kingdom; representatives of both major extant subdivisions occur within Iran.

  • ARTOXARES

    M. Dandamayev

    a Paphlagonian eunuch at the court of Artaxerxes I and satrap of Armenia.

  • ARTSRUNI

    C. Toumanoff

    one of the most important princely families of Armenia, an offshoot of the Orontids, Achaemenian satraps and subsequently kings of Armenia, but claiming descent from Sennacherib of Assyria.

  • ARTYPHIOS

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    or ARTYBIOS, Greek rendering of an Old Persian name.

  • ARTYSTONE

    R. Schmitt

    Persian female personal name.

  • ARUKKU

    M. Dandamayev

    a son of Cyrus I, king of Parsumaš and grandfather of Cyrus the Great.

  • ʿARŪSĪ

    A. Betteridge

    the secular wedding celebration which follows the wedding contract ceremony (ʿaqd).

  • ʿARŪŻ

    L. P. Elwell-Sutton

    the metrical system used by the Arab poets since pre-Islamic times.

  • ʿARŪŻĪ, YŪSOF

    Z. Safa

    rhetorician and poet of the 4th/10th century.

  • ARVAND GUŠNASP

    D. M. Lang

    Sasanian marzbān of Georgia under Ḵosrow I.

  • ARVAND-RŪD

    M. Kasheff

    name given to the river Tigris in some passages in the Mid. Pers. books.

  • ARYA

    H. W. Bailey

    an ethnic epithet in the Achaemenid inscriptions and in the Zoroastrian Avestan tradition.

  • ARYAMAN

    Cross-Reference

    See AIRYAMAN.