Table of Contents

  • ARDAŠĪR II

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    Sasanian king of kings, A.D. 379-83; he was deposed by the nobles in favor of Šāpūr III.

  • ARDAŠĪR III

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    Sasanian king (r. September, 628-29 April, 629). His father Šērōyē (Kawād II) murdered most of the Sasanian princes and died after only a brief reign.

  • ARDAŠĪR MĪRZĀ

    Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

    ROKN-AL-DAWLA, the ninth son of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā, b. ca.1805-06, d. 1866.

  • ARDAŠĪR SAKĀNŠĀH

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    a vassal king of the first Sasanian king of kings, Ardašīr I.

  • ARDAŠĪR-ḴORRA

    C. E. Bosworth

    one of the five administrative divisions (kūra) of Fārs, in Sasanian and early Islamic times.

  • ARDAŠĪR-NAMA

    A. Netzer

    a matnawī of six thousand couplets in Persian by Šāhīn Šīrāzī, a Jewish Persian poet of the 8th/14th century.

  • ARDAVĀN

    Cross-Reference

    (ARDAWĀN). See ARTABANUS.

  • ARDERIKKA

    R. Schmitt

    name of two ancient villages.

  • ARDESTĀN

    X. De Planhol, R. Hillenbrand

    a town of central Iran between Kāšān and Nāʾīn.

  • ARDESTĀNI

    P. Lecoq

    the dialect spoken in the small town of Ardestān.

  • ARDESTĀNĪ, ʿALĪ-AKBAR ḤOSAYNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿALĪ AKBAR ḤOSAYNĪ ARDESTĀNĪ.

  • ARDUMANIŠ

    P. Lecoq

    a Persian, son of Vahauka.

  • ARDWAHIŠT

    M. Boyce

    one of the six great Aməša Spəntas who, with Ahura Mazdā and/or his Holy Spirit, make up the Zoroastrian Heptad. Of the six, Aša has the clearest pre-Zoroastrian antecedents.

  • ARDWAHIŠT YAŠT

    M. Boyce

    (ORDĪBEHEŠT YAŠT), the third in the series of Avestan hymns addressed to individual divinities. It is devoted to one of the greatest of the Zoroastrian Aməša Spəntas, Aša Vahišta.

  • ARDWĪSŪR

    Cross-Reference

    See ANĀHĪD.

  • ARDWĪSŪR YAŠT

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀBĀN YAŠT.

  • ARƎDVĪ SŪRĀ

    Cross-Reference

    See ANĀHĪD.

  • ʿĀREF QAZVĪNĪ

    J. Matīnī, M. Caton

    ABU’L-QĀSEM (ca. 1300-1352/1882-1934), poet, musician, and singer during and after the Constitutional Revolution. 

  • ʿĀREFĪ HERAVĪ

    Z. Safa

    a poet of the 9th/15th century contemporary with the Timurid Šāhroḵ.

  • AREIA

    Cross-Reference

    See HERAT ii. HISTORY, PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD.

  • ARƎJAṰ.ASPA

    cross-reference

    See ARJĀSP.

  • ʿĀREŻ

    C. E. Bosworth

    the official in medieval eastern Islamic states who had charge of the administrative side of the military forces, being especially concerned with payment, recruitment, training, and inspection.

  • ARFAʿ, ḤASAN

    F. Azimi

    Iranian general, born in Tiflis in 1895, the eldest son of the veteran diplomat Prince Reżā Arfaʿ.

  • ARG

    J. R. Perry

    Its etymology is obscure: the term appears in Middle Persian only in the compound argbed a military rank and, though evidently in use, does not occur frequently in New Persian before the early 17th century. It is used also by Persian writers of Central Asia and northern India to designate the fortress of a city.

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  • ARG-E ʿALĪŠĀH

    K. Afsar

    the remains of the Masǰed-e ʿAlīšāh, a colossal mosque built in Tabrīz.

  • ARG-E KARĪM KHAN

    K. Afsar

    citadel built by the Zand ruler Karīm Khan (1163-93/1750-79).

  • ARG-E TEHRĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See TEHRAN.

  • ARḠANDĀB

    D. Balland

    the name of two non-contiguous administrative districts (woloswālī) in Afghanistan.

  • ARḠANDĀB RIVER

    D. Balland

    a river in the south of Afghanistan, the biggest tributary of the Helmand. The present name, in the form Āb-e Arḡand, is attested from the 7th/13th century.

  • ARGBED

    M. L. Chaumont

    a high-ranking title in the Parthian and Sasanian period.

  • ARḠŪN

    Cross-Reference

    See ABU’L-QĀSEM SOLṬĀN.

  • ARḠŪN ĀQĀ

    P. Jackson

    a Mongol administrator in Iran (d. 1275).

  • ARḠŪN KHAN

    P. Jackson

    fourth il-khan of Iran (r.683-90/1284-91).

  • ARIA

    R. Schmitt

    region in the eastern part of the Persian empire.

  • ARIABIGNES

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    an Achaemenid prince.

  • ARIAEUS

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    military commander in the army of Cyrus the Younger.

  • ARIARAMNEIA

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    a city in Cappadocia mentioned in an inscription.

  • ARIARAMNES

    Cross-Reference

    See ARIYĀRAMNA.

  • ARIARATUS

    C. J. Brunner

    one of the three sons of the Achaemenid King Artaxerxes II.

  • ARIMANIUS

    Cross-Reference

    Latin form of AHRIMAN.

  • ARIOBARZANES

    M. A. Dandamayev, A. Sh. Shahbazi, P. Lecoq

    Old Iranian proper name *Ārya-bṛzāna-, perhaps signifying “exalting the Aryans.”

  • ARISTAGORAS

    P. Tozzi

    tyrant of Miletus (late 6th-early 5th centuries B.C.).

  • ARIUS

    Cross-Reference

    See HARĪ-RŪD

  • ARIYĀRAMNA

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    Old Persian proper name.

  • ARIZANTOI

    C. J. Brunner

    one of the six tribes of the Median nation as listed by Herodotus.

  • ʿARĪŻĪ, ABŪ ṬĀLEB ḤOSAYNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    Mughal scholar chiefly famous for his alleged discovery of Malfūẓāt-e Tīmūrī or Wāqeʿāt-e Tīmūrī, an autobiographical account of Tīmūr from the 7th to the 74th year of his life. See ABŪ ṬĀLEB ḤOSAYNĪ ʿARĪŻĪ.

  • ARJĀN TOMB

    Javier Alvarez-Mon

    the late Neo-Elamite elite burial near Behbahan in southwestern Iran contains a coffin and a few artifacts and may shed new light on the discussion of Persian heritage as related to the Elamites.

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  • ARJĀSP

    A. Tafażżolī

    a chief of the Iranian tribe of the Xyōns and an enemy of Kay Goštāsp, patron of Zoroaster.

  • ARJOMAND, Ḵalil

    Rava Azeredo da Silveira

    At the age of 21, in Grenoble, Kalil Arjomand devised an innovative mechanism for graded motorcar acceleration. This achievement, which prefigures his later creativity, was singled out by Esmaʿil Merʾāt, then supervisor of the Iranian students in France and later Minister of Education, in his reports to Iranian authorities.

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  • ARLEZ

    J. Russell

    Armenian term for a supernatural creature.