Table of Contents

  • APĄM NAPĀT

    M. Boyce

    (Son of the Waters), Zoroastrian divinity of mysterious character whose true identity, like that of his Vedic counterpart, Apām Napāt, has been much debated.

  • APAMA

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    name of several noble women of the Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods, probably related to the Av. apama- “the latest,” hence “the youngest [child], nestling.”

  • APARIMITĀYUḤ-SŪTRA

    R. E. Emmerick

    a Buddhist text belonging to the Mahāyāna tradition. It is concerned with the merit obtained by recalling the Buddha called Aparimitāyurjñānasuviniścitarāja.

  • APARNA

    P. Lecoq

    (Gk. Aparnoi/Parnoi, Lat. Aparni or Parni), an east Iranian tribe established on the Ochos (modern Taǰen, Teǰend) and one of the three tribes in the confederation of the Dahae.

  • APASIACAE

    R. Schmitt

    name of a nomadic tribe belonging to the Scythian Massagetae, not attested in Iranian sources.

  • APHORISM

    P. Sprachman

    “short sentences drawn from long experience” to Cervantes, “the wisdom of many, the wit of one” to Lord Russell, the terms proverb, aphorism, maxim have evaded strict definition and demarcation.

  • APOCALYPTIC

    M. Boyce, I. K. Poonawala

    (that which has been revealed). The use of the term apocalyptic to define a particular type of prophetic utterance is a development of Judaeo-Christian studies, in which a need was felt to mark a distinction between the ancient prophets and the pseudonymous ones who flourished mainly in the intertestamental period.

  • APOLLODORUS OF ARTIMITA

    M. L. Chaumont

    historian of the 1st century B.C. or later, author of a Parthian History.

  • APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM

    N. Sims-Williams

    (Maxims of the fathers), Graeco-Latin name customarily used to refer to a species of Christian literature consisting of sayings and edifying anecdotes of the monks and solitary ascetics who inhabited the deserts of Egypt during the early centuries of the Christian era.

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  • APŌŠ

    C. J. Brunner

    Middle Persian for Av. Apaoša, the demon of drought.  

  • APOSTOLIC CANONS

    N. Sims-Williams

    fragmentary Christian Sogdian text.

  • APPIANUS

    M. L. Chaumont

    (APPIAN) OF ALEXANDRIA, historian, born probably toward the end of the 1st century CE.

  • APZUT KAWĀT WALL

    Murtazali Gadjiev

    a Sasanian defensive wall located between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus mountains.

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  • AQ EVLI

    P. Oberling

    a small Turkic tribe of Fārs. According to legend, the ancestors of the present-day Āq Evlīs were forced to migrate from Azerbaijan to Khorasan in Safavid times.

  • AQ QOYUNLŪ

    R. Quiring-Zoche

    or WHITE SHEEP, a confederation of Turkman tribes who ruled in eastern Anatolia and western Iran until the Safavid conquest in 1501.

  • ʿĀQ-E WĀLEDAYN

    J. Calmard

    (ʿĀQQ-E WĀLEDAYN), Ar. “[the son] disobedient to [his] parents,” a theme in popular Shiʿite literature.

  • AQA

    D. O. Morgan

    Mongolian title, essentially meaning “elder brother” and by extension “senior member of the family.”

  • ĀQĀ BĀLĀ KHAN SARDĀR

    Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

    MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ KHAN, Qajar official in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

  • AQA BOZORG QĀʾEM-MAQĀM

    cross-reference

    See QĀʾEM-MAQĀM.

  • ĀQĀ BOZORG ṬEHRĀNĪ

    H. Algar

     (1293-1389/1876-1970), Shiʿite scholar and bibliographer.