Table of Contents

  • ANŪŠERVĀN

    C. E. Bosworth

    B. MANŪČEHR B. QĀBŪS, ruler of the Daylamī dynasty of the Ziyarids in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān during the early 11th century.

  • ANŪŠERVĀN KĀŠĀNĪ

    C. E. Bosworth

    ABŪ NAṢR ŠARAF-AL-DĪN, high official who served the Great Saljuq sultans and the ʿAbbasid caliph during the first half of the 6th/12th century.

  • ANŪŠTIGIN ḠARČAʾĪ

    C. E. Bosworth

    Turkish slave commander of the Saljuqs; in the late 11th century, he bore the traditional title of Ḵᵛārazmšāh.

  • ANWĀR, SHAH QĀSEM

    Cross-Reference

    SHAH QĀSEM. See QĀSEM-E ANWĀR.

  • ANWĀR-E SOHAYLĪ

    G. M. Wickens

    a collection of fables by the Timurid prose-stylist Ḥosayn Wāʿeẓ Kāšefī.  

  • ANWARI

    J. T. P. de Bruijn

    AWḤAD-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD (or ʿALĪ), poet at the court of the Saljuqs in the 12th century.

  • ANZALĪ

    Marcel Bazin

    The town had 55,000 inhabitants in 1976 and 110,643 in 2006 (Markaz-e Āmār-e Irān), mainly Gilaks and Turks. The latter are mostly emigrants (mohâjer) from Azerbaijan when it was under Soviet rule, and they are particularly numerous in the fisheries and port activities.

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  • ANZAN

    Cross-Reference

    The name of an important Elamite region in western Fārs and of its chief city. See ANSHAN.

  • AOGƎMADAĒČĀ

    J. Duchesne-Guillemin

    A small prayer and meditation on death, made up of 29 Avestan quotations (one of them Gathic) embedded in a sermon in Pārsī (Pahlavi in Arabic script).

  • APADĀNA

    R. Schmitt, D. Stronach

    The term apadāna was possibly used exclusively to describe a distinctive type of columned audience hall introduced by Darius I (r. 522-486 B.C.). It is only known from four extant inscriptions: one of Darius II (r. 424-05 B.C.) and three of his son, Artaxerxes II (r. 405-359 B.C.).

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  • 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.

  • ĀQĀ KHAN

    H. Algar

    title of the imams of the Nezārī Ismaʿilis since early 19th century.

  • ĀQĀ KHAN KERMĀNĪ

    M. Bayat

    (1854-55 to 1896), Iranian writer and intellectual, and an outstanding example of a first-generation secular nationalist. His main goal seems to have been the upholding of reason and modern science, both of which he viewed as directly and unavoidably opposed to religion. His lifetime struggle was in the name of Iran rather than Islam.

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  • ĀQĀ KHAN NŪRĪ

    Cross-Reference

    (1807-1865), prime minister (ṣadr-e aʿẓam) of Persia (1851-58) under Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah Qajar. See EʿTEMĀD-AL-DAWLA, ĀQĀ KHAN NURI.

  • ĀQĀ MĪRAK

    P. P. Soucek

    prominent painter of the 10th/16th century in the workshop of the Safavid Shah Ṭahmāsp (r. 930-84/1524-76).

  • ĀQĀ NAJAFĪ EṢFAHĀNĪ

    A.-H. Hairi

    (1262-1332/1846-1914), prominent religious leader involved with a number of important political events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

  • ĀQĀ NAJAFĪ QŪČĀNI

    A.-H. Hairi

    (1295-1362/1878-1943), religious authority and constitutionalist.

  • ĀQĀ REŻĀ HERAVĪ

    P. P. Soucek

    a painter closely associated with Prince Salīm, the later Emperor Jahāngīr, during the latter’s residence in Allahabad (1008-13/1599-1605). 

  • ĀQĀ TABRĪZĪ

    Hasan Javadi and Farrokh Gaffary

    MĪRZĀ, 19th-century civil servant and writer.

  • ĀQĀ ZANJĀNĪ

    P. P. Soucek

    MĪRZĀ, also known as Ḵamsaʾī, a calligrapher active between 1869-70 and 1890.

  • ĀQĀSĪ

    A. Amanat

    ḤĀJJĪ MĪRZĀ ABBĀS ĪRAVĀNĪ (ca. 1198-1265/1783-1848), grand vizier of Moḥammad Shah Qāǰār (r. 1834-48),  1835-48.

  • ĀQČA

    D. Balland

    (or AQČA), a small market town in north Afghanistan, situated on the western edge of the great piedmont oasis of the Balḵāb river.

  • AQD

    A. H. Betteridge and H. Javadi

    marriage contract, marriage contract ceremony.

  • ʿAQD-NĀMA

    L. S. Diba

    contract, now specifically marriage contract.

  • ʿAQDĀ

    C. E. Bosworth

    a small settlement and subdistrict (dehestān) in the district (baḵš) of Ardakān-e Yazd.

  • AQDAS

    A. Bausani

    more fully al-Ketāb al-aqdas (Pers. Ketāb-e aqdas), “The Most Holy Book,” written in Arabic by Bahāʾallāh, the founder of the Bahāʾī religion.

  • ʿĀQEL KHAN RĀZĪ

    S. Maqbul Ahmad

    Indo-Muslim man of letters, historian, and mystic (d. 1108/1696).

  • ʿĀQEL, MIRZA MOḤAMMAD

    M. Baqir

     Kashmiri poet and courtier who flourished in the first half of the 12th/18th century.

  • ʿĀQEL, MOḤAMMAD

    M. L. Siddiqui

    entitled Korīǰa, mystic of the Panjab (d. 1229/1814). 

  • ĀQEVLI, FARAJ-ALLĀH

    Bāqer ʿĀqeli

    Faraj-Allāh Āqevli went to school in Isfahan and Tehran. After graduating, he taught history and geography at the Adab and Neẓām (military) schools, and was for a time an accountant in the Ministry of Finance. During the coup d’etat of 1299/1921, Āqevli had the rank of colonel.

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  • ʿAQL

    F. Rahman, W. C. Chittick

     “intellect, intelligence, reason”.