Table of Contents

• ĀS

  Mehdi Roschanzamir

  a game of playing cards which became popular in the Qajar era, and hence replaced ganjafa, the card game associated with the Safavids.

• ĀS

  cross-reference

  “Ossetia”; ĀSĪ “Ossetic, Ossete.” See ALANS; ALBANIA; ASII; OSSETIC.

• ĀŠ

  W. Eilers, ʿE. Elāhī, M. Boyce

  (thick soup), the general term for a traditional Iranian dish comparable to the French potage.

• AṦA

  B. Schlerath, P. O. Skjærvø

  “truth” in Avestan. The Indo-Iranian concept of truth is preserved in the Gāθās and in the younger Avesta unchanged.

• AṦA VAHIŠTA

  cross-reference

  See ARDWAHIŠT.

• ASʿAD B. NAṢR

  Cross-Reference

  See ABZARĪ.

• ASAD B. SĀMĀNḴODĀ

  C. E. Bosworth

  ancestor of the Samanid dynasty.

• ASADĀBĀD (1)

  C. E. Bosworth

  name of several towns in medieval sources, including the modern city.

• ASADĀBĀD

  D. Balland

  (or ASʿADĀBĀD), the official name of a small town in eastern Afghanistan, capital of Konar (Kunar) Province.

• ASADĀBĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR B. AḤMAD.

• ASADĀBĀDĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN

  Cross-Reference

  See AFḠĀNĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN.

• ASADALLĀH EṢFAHĀNĪ

  A. S. Melikian-Chirvani

  a signature borne by hundreds of fine blades, which is occasionally followed by dates ranging from the 17th to the 19th century.

• ASADĪ ṬŪSĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  (d. 1072-73), poet, linguist and copyist, from Ṭūs in Khorasan.

• ĀṢAF AL-LOḠĀT

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  title of a Persian dictionary.

• ĀṢAF KHAN

  P. Saran

  10th/16th century Mughal official and military commander.

• ĀṢAF-AL-DAWLA, ʿABD-AL-WAHHĀB

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• ĀṢAF-AL-DAWLA, ALLĀHYĀR

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• ĀṢAFĪ HERAVĪ

  A. ʿA. Rajāʾī

  a minor poet of the Timurid period (d. 923/1517).

• ASAGARTA

  W. Eilers

  an ancient Iranian tribe of uncertain location; they must have dwelt in the east of the kingdom. 

• ASĀLEM

  M. Bazin

  a mountainous district in Ṭāleš, now a dehestān of the central baḵš of the šahrestān of Ṭawāleš, province of Gīlān.

• ASĀLEMI dialect

  Cross-Reference

  See ṬĀLEŠI.

• AṢAMM, ABU BAKR

  F. W. Zimmermann

  (d. 200/815-6 or 201/816-7), Muʿtazilite of Baṣra.

• ĀŠAQLŪN

  Cross-Reference

  Manichean demon. See ĀSRĒŠTĀR.

• AʿSAR, ʿALAWAYH ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿALAWAYH AL-AʿSAR.

• ĀŠʿARĪ, ABŪ MŪSĀ

  Cross-Reference

  See ABŪ MŪSĀ AŠʿARĪ.

• AŠʿARĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN

  C. E. Bosworth

  scholastic theologian (motakallem) and founder of the theological school of the Ašʿarīya.

• ĀŠʿARĪYA

  A. Heinen

  (or Asḥʿarism), an Islamic school of theological thought founded by Abu’l-Ḥasan Ašʿarī.

• ASĀS

  H. Halm

  “foundation, basis,” a degree of the Ismaʿili daʿwa hierarchy.

• ASĀṬĪR

  Cross-Reference

  See MYTHOLOGY.

• AŠAVAN (possessing Truth)

  G. Gnoli

  (Avestan), lit. “possessing truth (aša),”  referring to humans, Ahura Mazdā, and the divine or angelic entities.

• ASĀWERA

  C. E. Bosworth

  Arabic broken plural form of a singular oswār(ī), eswār(ī), early recognized by Arab philologists as a loanword from Persian meaning “cavalryman.”

• ʿAŠĀYER

  F. Towfīq

  “tribes” in Iran. 1. Definitions. 2. Historical background. 3. Population figures. 4. Territorial distribution: (a) Lor and Lak tribes; (b) Kurdish tribes; (c) Turkish tribes; (d) Arab tribes; (e) Baluch and Brahui tribes. 5. Organization. 6. Economy.

• ASB

  A. Sh. Shahbazi, F. Thordarson, ʿA. Solṭānī Gordfarāmarzī, C. E. Bosworth

  “horse.”  From the dawn of history the Iranians have celebrated the horse in their art and in their literature.  i. In pre-Islamic Iran.  ii. Among the Scythians.  iii. In Islamic times.  iv. In Afghanistan.

• ASB-SAVĀRĪ

  J.-P. Digard

  "horse-riding." The Iranian lands, in the course of their long history, have been the source of major advances in the techniques of equitation.

• ĀŠBANAKKUŠ

  M. Mayrhofer

  name of an Iranian in the Persepolis Fortification Tablets.

• ASBĀNBAR

  Cross-Reference

  See MADĀʾEN.

• ASBĪĀN

  cross-reference

  See ĀBTĪN.

• ĀŠEʿʿAT AL-LAMAʿĀT

  A. E. Khairallah

  (The rays of the flashes), a detailed commentary by Nūr-al-dīn ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Jāmī (817/1414-898/1492).

• ʿĀṢEM EFENDĪ

  T. Yazici

  (1168/1755-1236/1819), an Ottoman Turkish linguist and chronicler.

• AŠƎM VOHŪ

  B. Schlerath

  the second of the four great prayers of the Zoroastrians, the others being: Ahuna vairyō (Y. 27.13), Yeŋˊhē hātąm (Y. 27.15), and Airyəˊmā išyō (Y. 54.1).

• ʿĀṢEMI, Moḥammad

  Habib Borjian

  (also Osimi and Asimov) Tajik educator, scholar, statesman, and humanist (b. Ḵojand, 1 September 1920; d. Dushanbe, 29 July 1996).

• ʿĀŠEQ

  C. F. Albright

  in Azerbaijan, Iran, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, a poet and minstrel who accompanies his singing on a long-necked, fretted, plucked chordophone known as a sāz.

• ʿĀŠEQ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  K. Amīrī Fīrūzkūhī

  a Persian poet of the 12th/18th century (pen name ʿĀšeq).

• ʿĀŠEQ HAWĀSĪ

  C. F. Albright

  “melody of the ʿāšeq,” term referring to (1) a type of poem often sung by ʿāšeqs in Iranian Azerbaijan and (2) the typical manner of singing the poem and the manner of accompanying it on the musical instrument.

• ASFĀD JOŠNAS

  A. Tafażżolī

  a native of Ardašīr-ḵorra (Gūr, Fīrūzābād) who commanded the supporters of Šērōya.

• ASFAND

  H. Gaube

  a medieval district (kūra) of the quarter (robʿ) of Nīšāpūr of Khorasan province.

• ASFĀNŪR

  Cross-Reference

  See MADĀʾEN.

• ASFĀR AL-ARBAʿA

  F. Rahman

  (The four journeys), title of the magnum opus of Mollā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1641).

• ASFĀR B. ŠĪRŪYA

  C. E. Bosworth

  early 10th-century military leader during the period of Samanid expansion.

• ASFEZĀR

  C. E. Bosworth

  (or ASFŌZAR), designation of a district (kūra) and later its chief town in the Herat quarter of Khorasan.

• ASFEZĀRĪ, ABŪ ḤĀTEM

  D. Pingree

  5th/12th-century astronomer, of whose life almost nothing is known.

• ASFĪJĀB

  C. E. Bosworth

  (or ASBĪJĀB, ESBĪJĀB) a town and district of medieval Transoxania.

• ASHKHABAD

  B. Spuler

  (Russian; Persian ʿEšqābād), since the Soviet period the capital of Turkmenistan.

• ASHRAF, GHODSIEH

  Mahnaze A. da Silveira

  a Bahaʾi philanthropist, and promulgator and engineer of numerous educational and health projects, mainly for women and children.

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• AŠI

  B. Schlerath, P. O. Skjærvø

  Avestan feminine noun meaning “thing attained, reward, share, portion, recompense” and, as a personification, the goddess “Reward, Fortune.”

• ĀSĪĀ (or āsīāb, Mill)

  M. Harverson

  or āsīāb, "mill." Before World War II most grain ground to produce flour for the staple in the Iranian diet, bread, was processed by traditionally powered mills, principally watermills. Except in remote areas they have been replaced by diesel or electrically-driven mills, and old machinery has fallen derelict.

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• Asia Institute

  Richard N. Frye

  founded in 1928 in New York City as the American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology, incorporated 1930 in the state of New York and active in Shiraz 1965-79. In its affiliation, functions, and publications, the Institute has had a complicated and eventful career, illustrating some of the vicissitudes of Iranian studies during the twentieth century.

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• ASIA INSTITUTE, BULLETIN OF THE

  Richard N. Frye

  originally Bulletin of the American Institute of Persian Art and Archaeology from July 1931; and the first issue was edited by Arthur Upham Pope, director of the Institute.

• ASIA MINOR

  M. Weiskopf

  IRANO-ANATOLIAN RELATIONS.

• ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL

  Cross-Reference

  See BENGAL ii. Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal.

• ASII

  F. Thordarson

  (or ASIANI), an ancient nomadic people of Central Asia, who about 130 B.C. put an end to Greek rule in Bactria.

• ASINAEUS AND ANILAEUS

  M. Smith

  figure in Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities.

• ASĪR EṢFAHĀNĪ

  K. Amīrī Fīrūzkūhī

  a poet of the 11th/17th century (d. 1049/1639).

• ĀŠIRVĀD

  M. F. Kanga

  “blessing, benediction,” a set of prayers and admonitions recited by the two officiating Parsi priests in the Zoroastrian marriage ceremony.

• ʿASJADĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

   a poet of the first half of the 5th/11th century.

• ASK SPRINGS

  E. Ehlers

  Situated at the foot of Damāvand (5,670 m) in the valley of the Harāz-rūd, Ask is one of a number of places in the Alborz where one finds thermal mineral springs.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ĀŠKĀBĀD

  Cross-Reference

  See ASHKHABAD.

• ĀŠKĀNĪĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See ARSACIDS.

• ʿASKAR MOKRAM

  C. E. Bosworth

  a town of the medieval Islamic province of Ahvāz (Ḵūzestān) and also the name of the district of which it was the administrative center.

• ʿASKARĀN

  KAMRAN EKBAL

  village in Qarābāḡ about seven miles northeast of Stepanakert in the eastern Caucasus, where peace negotiations between Russia and Persia took place in 1225/1810.

• ʿASKARĪ

  H. Halm

  the 11th imam of the Twelver Shiʿites.

• ʿASKARĪ, ABŪ HELĀL

  W. M. Watt

  philologist and poet born about the middle of the 4th/10th century.

• ʿAŠKARĪ, ʿALĪ AL-HĀDĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿALĪ AL-HĀDĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN AL-ʿASKARĪ.

• ĀŠKAŠ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  an Iranian hero in the reign of Kay Ḵosrow.

• ĀŠKBŌS

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  a Turanian hero from Kašān or Košān in the story of “Kāmūs-e Kašānī,” in the Šāh-nāma.

• ASLAM, ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

   See ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM.

• ĀṢLĀNDŪZ

  J. Qāʾem-Maqāmī

  (or AṢLĀNDŪZ), a small village in the northeast of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.

• ĀSMĀN

  A. Tafażżolī

  (sky, heavens), in Zoroastrian cosmology the first part of the material (gētīg) world created by Ohrmazd.

• ASMĀR AL-ASRĀR

  S. S. K. Hussaini

  (Night-discourses of secrets), theosophical treatise in Persian composed by a 9th/15th century Češtī Sufi of India, Sayyed Moḥammad Ḥosaynī Gīsūdarāz (d. 825/1422), popularly known as Ḵᵛāǰa-ye Bandanavāz.

• ASMUSSEN, Jes Peter

  Werner Sundermann

  scholar of Iranian studies (1928-2002).

• AṢNĀF

  W. M. Floor

  the plural of ṣenf (class, kind category), collective designation of guilds in Iran since the 11th/17th century.

• ĀSNATAR

  W. W. Malandra

  one of the eight Zoroastrian priests (ratu) necessary for the performance of the yasna ritual.

• ĀŠŌ-DĀD

  M. F. Kanga

  Zoroastrian (Pazend) term for the remuneration to a priest for his services.

• ĀŠOFTA

  N. Parvīn

  a Persian magazine published in Tehran 1325 Š./1946-1336 Š./1957.

• ĀŠŌGAR

  Cross-Reference

  See AŠŌQAR.

• AŚOKA

  J. G. De Casparis, G. Fussman, P. O. Skj

   Mauryan emperor of India (ca. 272-231 B.C.).

• ASOŁIK

  M. van Esbroech

   “the singer,” the usual name of Stephen of Tarōn.

• ĀŠŌQAR

  EIr

  in Syriac sources the name of a deity.

• ĀSŌRISTĀN

  G. Widengren

  name of the Sasanian province of Babylonia.

• ASP

  Cross-Reference

  See ASB.

• ASP-SAVĀRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ASB-SAVĀRĪ.

• ASPABAD

  Cross-Reference

  or ASPAPAT. See ASPBED.

• ASPAČANĀ

  A. Sh. Shahbazi

  a senior official under Darius the Great and Xerxes.

• ASPAND

  Cross-Reference

  See ESFAND.

• ASPARUKH

  D. M. Lang

  a Middle Iranian proper name attested in ancient Georgia and early medieval Bulgaria.

• ASPASII

  C. J. Brunner

  one of the tribal people encountered by Alexander the Great in Gandhāra, 327-26 B.C.

• ASPASTES

  A. Sh. Shahbazi

  Greek form of an Old Persian name attested in the Achaemenid period.

• ASPATHINES

  Cross-Reference

  See ASPAČANĀ.

• ĀŠPAZ, ʿABDALLĀH HERAVĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABDALLĀH HERAVĪ.

• ĀŠPAZ-ḴĀNA

  ʿE. Elāhī

  “kitchen.”

• ĀŠPAZĪ

  B. Fragner

  "cooking." The history of food consumption in Iran is primarily part of the history of agriculture and stockbreeding on the Iranian plateau.

• ASPBED

  M. L. Chaumont

  “master of horses, chief of cavalry,” Parthian title attested in the Nisa documents and the inscription of Šāpūr I on the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt.

• ASPET

  C. Toumanoff

  Armenian title.

• ʿAṢR-E ENQELĀB

  N. Parvīn

  a journal of news and political comment published at Tehran in 1333-1915.

• ʿAṢR-E JADĪD

  N. Parvīn

  (New era), the name of several journals and a magazine published in Iran at various times.

• ĀŠRAF GĪLĀNĪ

  M. Rahman

  (1870-1934), poet and leading journalist of the Constitutional era.

• ĀŠRAF ḠILZAY

  D. Balland

  the Afghan chief who ruled as Shah over part of Iran from 1137/1725 to 1142/1729.

• ĀŠRAF

  Cross-Reference

  town in Māzandarān. See BEHŠAHR.

• ĀŠRAF-ʿALĪ KHAN FOḠĀN

  M. Baqir

  (or FEḠĀN), poet writing in Persian and Urdu (1140-86/1727-72).

• ĀŠRAFI

  B. Fragner

  term used from the mid-15th century for a gold coin first minted in Mamluk Egypt in 810/1407-08.

• ĀŠRAFĪ

  A. Hairi

  religious leader, born sometime before 1235/1819 and died 1315/1897-98.

• ASRĀR AL-ḤEKAM

  M. Moḥaqqeq

  the title of a book written for Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah Qāǰār, by the philosopher Ḥāǰǰ Mollā Hādī Sabzavāri (1212-89/1797-1872).

• ASRĀR AL-TAWḤĪD

  H. Algar

   principal source for the life and teachings of the well-known mystic of Khorasan, Abū Saʿid b. Abi’l-Ḵayr (b. 357/967, d. 440/1049).

• ĀSRĒŠTĀR

  P. O. Skjærvø

  in Middle Persian Manichean texts a kind of demons, often associated with the mazans.

• ĀSRŌN

  EIr

  Middle Persian form of Avestan āθravan.

• ʿAṢṢĀR TABRĪZĪ

  Z. Safa

  poet, scholar, and mystic of the 8th/14th century.

• ʿAṢṢĀR, Sayyed MOḤAMMAD-KĀẒEM

  Ahmad Kazemi Mousavi and EIr

  (b. 1302/1884-85; d. Tehran, 19 Dey 1353 Š./9 January 1975), outstanding Shiʿite scholar and professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran.

• ASSARHADDON

  J. A. Delaunay

  king of Assyria 680-69 B.C., son of Sennacherib and the Arameo-Babylonian princess Zakūtu.

• ASSASSINS

  Cross-Reference

  (Ar. Ḥaššāšin), pejorative name given to Neẓāri Ismaʿilis by their adversaries during the Middle Ages. See ISMAʿILISM iii. History.

• AŠŠURBANIPAL

  J. A. Delaunay

  king of Assyria 666-25 BCE.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ASSYRIA

  M. Dandamayev and È. Grantovskiĭ, M. Dandamayev, K. Schippmann

  i. The Kingdom of Assyria and its relations with Iran. ii. Achaemenid Aθurā. iii. Parthian Assur.

• ASSYRIANS IN IRAN

  R. Macuch, A. Ishaya

  Assyrians (Āšūrīs) is the term for the modern, East Syrian Christian communities in Iran. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ASTABED

  M. L. Chaumont

  The word astabid occurs in two Syriac texts as the title of a high-ranking Iranian officer and is applied to three different individuals.

• ĀŠTĀD

  G. Gnoli

  Old Iranian female deity of rectitude and justice.

• ĀŠTĀD YAŠT

  P. O. Skjærvø

  Yt. 18, though dedicated to Aštād, the goddess of rectitude, does not mention her.

• ĀSTĀN-E QODS-E RAŻAWĪ

  ʿA.-Ḥ. Mawlawī, M. T.Moṣṭafawī, and E. Šakūrzāda

  the complex of buildings surrounding the tomb of the Imam ʿAlī al-Reżā at Mašhad.

• ĀSTĀNA

  Eckart Ehlers, Marcel Bazin, and Christian Bromberger

  a township and a district of Lāhīǰān in the province of Gīlān.

• ĀSTĀRĀ

  M. Bazin

  a town and a district in the Ṭāleš region on the Caspian coast.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ASTARĀBĀD

  C. E. Bosworth, S. Blair

  (or ESTERĀBĀD), the older Islamic name for the modern town of Gorgān in northeastern Iran, and also the name of an administrative province in Qajar times.

• ASTARĀBĀD BAY

  E. Ehlers

  a lagoon in the extreme southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea.

• ASTARĀBĀD-ARDAŠĪR

  Cross-Reference

  See KARḴ MAYSĀN.

• ASTARĀBĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR ASTARĀBĀDĪ.

• ASTARĀBĀDĪ, FAŻLALLĀH

  H. Algar

  (d. 796/1394), founder of the Ḥorūfī religion.

• ASTARĀBĀDĪ, MAHDĪ KHAN

  J. R. Perry

  court secretary and historiographer to Nāder Shah Afšār (r. 1148-60/1736-47).

• ASTARĀBĀDĪ, MOḤAMMAD AMĪN

  E. Kohlberg

   founder of the 17th-century Aḵbārī school.

• AŠTARAK

  KAMRAN EKBAL

  a village in the Ābārān district about six miles northwest of Yerevan (Iravān) in a mountainous region of the Caucasus.

• ĀŠTARJĀN

  R. Hillenbrand

  (OŠTORJĀN), name of a subdistrict (dehestān) and its chief village, lying southwest of Isfahan.

• ĀSTARKĪ

  J. Qāʾem-Maqāmī

  (or AŠTARKĪ), one sub-tribe of the six which presently constitute the Dūrkī tribe of the Haft Lang confederation of the Baḵtīārī people.

• ASTAUENE

  Gorgān

  Parthian province to the north of Hyrcania (Gorgān). See OSTOVĀ.

• ĀŠTĪĀN

  C. E. Bosworth

  the name both of an administrative subdistrict (dehestān) and its chef-lieu in the First Province (ostān).

• ĀŠTĪĀNI

  E. Yarshater

  the dialect of Āštīān, belongs to the group of “Central” dialects spoken in Kashan and Isfahan provinces and some adjacent areas.

• ĀŠTĪĀNĪ, ḤASAN

  H. Algar

  (d. 1319/1901), late 19-century moǰtahed who played an important role in the campaign against the tobacco concession of 1309/1891.

• ĀŠTĪĀNĪ, MAHDĪ

  H. Algar

  known as Mīrzā Kūček (1306-1372/1888-89 to 1952-53), a scholar who excelled in both the traditional (manqūl) and rational (maʿqūl) sciences.

• ĀŠTIŠAT

  M. Van Esbroeck

  religious center of pagan Armenia and first official Christian see.

• ASTŌDĀN

  A. Sh. Shahbazi

  “bone-receptacle, ossuary.” The term has an important place in the vocabulary of ancient Iranian funerary rites.

• ASṬORLĀB

  D. Pingree

  (or OSṬORLĀB), astrolabe, an instrument used in astronomy for a variety of purposes, e.g., demonstration and solution of problems in spherics, measuring altitudes, and telling time.

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• ASTRAKHAN

  B. Spuler

  a town (Russian since 1556) on the river Volga.

• ASTROLABE

  Cross-Reference

  See ASṬORLĀB.

• ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY IN IRAN

  D. Pingree, C. J. Brunner

  i. History of astronomy in Iran. ii. Astronomy and astrology in the Sasanian period. iii. Astrology in Islamic times.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ASTVAṰ.ƎRƎTA

  M. Boyce

  the Avestan name of the Saošyant, the future Savior of Zoroastrianism.

• ASTWIHĀD

  M. F. Kanga

  the demon of death in the Avesta and later Zoroastrian texts.

• ASTYAGES

  R. Schmitt

  the last Median king.

• ʿĀŠŪRĀʾ

  M. Ayoub

  tenth day of Moḥarram, the first month of the Islamic calendar; for Sunnis it is a day on which fasting is recommended, and for Shiʿites a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Ḥosayn.

• ĀŠŪRĀDA

  J. Qāʾem-Maqāmī

  (or Āšūrʾāda, ʿAšūrʾāda), formerly (until ca. 1308-09 Š./1930) three adjacent islands, now part of the end of the Mīānkāla peninsula of Māzandarān, at the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea.

• ASWĀR

  P. O. Skjærvø

  (Middle Persian) “horseman.” In Old Persian asabāra designated the horseman as opposed to the foot-soldier.

• ASYLUM

  Cross-Reference

  religious, secular, and extraterritorial. See BAST.

• ʿAṬĀʾ SAMARQANDĪ

  D. Pingree

  author of a set of astronomical tables for an unidentified prince of the Yuan dynasty of China, 1362-63.

• ATĀBAK

  C. Cahen

  Turkish atabeg, lit. “father-chief,” a Turkish title of rank which first appears, at least under this name, with the early Saljuqs.

• ATĀBAK-E AʿẒAM, AMĪN-AL-SOLṬĀN

  J. Calmard

  grand vizier under the last three Qajar kings.

• ATĀBAKĀN-E ĀḎARBĀYJĀN

  K. A. Luther

  an influential family of military slave origin, also called Ildegozids, ruled parts of Arrān and Azerbaijan from about 530/1135-36 to 622/1225.

• ATĀBAKĀN-E FĀRS

  B. Spuler

  princes of the Salghurid dynasty who ruled Fārs in the 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries.

• ATĀBAKĀN-E LORESTĀN

  B. Spuler

  rulers of Lorestān, part of the Zagros highlands of southwestern Iran in the later middle ages. Lorestān had a mixed population of Lors, Kurds, and others.

• ATĀBAKĀN-E MARĀḠA

  K. A. Luther

   a family of local rulers of Marāḡa who ruled from the early 6th/12th century until 605/1208-09.

• ATĀBAKĀN-E YAZD

  S. C. Fairbanks

  a dynasty which governed Yazd in the 6th/12th century.

• ʿATABĀT

  H. Algar

  “thresholds,” more fully, ʿatabāt-e ʿalīyāt or ʿatabāt-e (or aʿtāb-e) moqaddasa “the lofty or sacred thresholds,” the Shiʿite shrine cities of Iraq

• ATĀʾĪYA ORDER

  D. DeWeese

  a branch of the Yasavīya Sufi brotherhood especially active in Ḵᵛārazm from the 8th/14th century.

• ĀṮĀR AL-BĀQĪA

  D. Pingree

   (The Chronology of Ancient Nations), a historical work by Bīrūnī, composed at the age of 27, in 1000 CE.

• ĀṮĀR AL-BELĀD

  C. E. Bosworth

  the title of a geographical work composed in Arabic during the 7th/13th century by the Persian scholar Abū Yaḥyā Zakarīyāʾ b. Moḥammad Qazvīnī.

• ĀṮĀR AL-WOZARĀʾ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  a biographical work on ministers and other officials, their policies and literary works, by Sayf al-dīn Ḥāǰǰī b. Neẓām ʿAqīlī, written at Herat between 1470-71 and 1486-87.

• ĀṮĀR-E ʿAJAM

  M. Dabīrsīaqī

  a study of the geographical features and historical monuments of Fārs.

• ĀTAŠ

  M. Boyce

  “fire”. Zoroastrian veneration of fire plainly has its origin in an Indo-Iranian cult of the hearth fire, going back in all probability to Indo-European times.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ĀTAŠ Journal

  N. Parvīn

  (Fire), a Persian journal of news and political comment, published in Tehran, 1946-60.

• ĀTAŠ NIYĀYIŠN

  M. Boyce and F. M. Kotwal

  the fifth in a group of five Zoroastrian prayers, which is addressed to fire and its divinity.

• ĀTAŠ, AḤMAD

  cross-reference

  See  ATEŞ, AHMED.

• ĀTAŠ, Ḵᵛāja ʿAlī Ḥaydar

  M. Baqir

  late 18th to early 19th-century Indo-Muslim poet in Persian and Urdu.

• ĀTAŠ-ZŌHR

  M. Boyce and F. M. Kotwal

  or ātaš-zōr, a Middle Persian term for the Zoroastrian ritual.

• ĀTAŠDĀN

  M. Boyce

   “place of fire, fire-holder,” designates the altar-like repository for a sacred wood-fire in a Zoroastrian place of worship.

• ATASHI, MANUCHEHR

  Saeed Rezaei

  modernist poet, journalist, and translator.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ĀTAŠKADA

  M. Boyce

   “house of fire,” a Zoroastrian term for a consecrated building in which there is an ever-burning sacred fire.

• ATEŞ, AHMED

  Tahsin Yazici

  (1911-1966), Turkish orientalist and scholar of Persian literature.

• ATHENAIOS OF NAUCRATIS

  J. Duchesne-Guillemin

  author of the Deipnosophistai, his only extant work, in which in about a hundred passages he deals with things Persian.

• AṮĪR AḴSĪKATĪ

  Z. Safa

  Poet of the 6th/12th century with a distinctive style.

• AṮĪR OWMĀNĪ

  Z. Safa

  Poet of the ʿErāqī (western Iranian) school of the 7th/13th century (d. 665/1266).

• AṮĪR-AL-DĪN ABHARĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ABHARĪ SAMARQANDĪ, AṮĪR-AL-DĪN.

• ATKINSON, James A.

  A. Karimi-Hakkak

  (1780­-1852), a notable British orientalist, a scholar of the Persian language and literature, and the translator of Persia literature.

• ATOSSA

  R. Schmitt

  Achaemenid queen.

• ʿAṬR

  F. Aubaile-Sallenave

  “perfume” (Arabic ʿeṭr, plur. ʿoṭūr; in Persian also ʿaṭrīyāt, perfumes), a Semitic term also attested in Syriac and Amharic.

• ATRAK

  C. E. Bosworth

  river of northern Khorasan, flowing first northwest, and then southwest into the Caspian Sea.

• ĀΘRAVAN-

  M. Boyce

  (Avestan) “priest” regularly used to designate the priests as a social “class,” one of the three into which ancient Iranian society was theoretically divided.

• ĀTRƎVAXŠ

  W. W. Malandra

  (Mid. Pers ādurwaxš), one of the eight Zoroastrian priests (ratu) necessary for performance of the yasna ritual.

• ATROPATENE

  Cross-Reference

  See AZERBAIJAN.

• ATROPATES

  M. L. CHAUMONT

  the satrap of Media, commander of the troops from Media, Albania, and Sacasene at the battle of Gaugamela in 331 B.C.

• ATRUŠAN

  J. R. Russell

  the Armenian word for “fire temple,” a loan-word from Parthian.

• ATSÏZ B. ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN ATSÏZ.

• ATSÏZ ḠARČAʾĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  ruler of Ḵᵛārazm with the traditional title Ḵᵛārazmšāh, 521 or 522/1127 or 1128 to 551/1156.

• ATTABI

  E. Sims

  one of many names for cloth used by medieval Islamic writers.

• AṬṬĀR, FARĪD-AL-DĪN

  B. Reinert

  Persian poet, Sufi, theoretician of mysticism, and hagiographer, born ca. 540/1145-46 at Nīšāpūr, and died there in 618/1221.

• ʿAṬṬĀŠ

  J. van Ess

  Ismaʿili leader during the time of Sultan Barkīāroq (Berk-yaruq, d. 498/1104).

• ATTAŠAMA

  M. Mayrhofer

  personal name in the Nuzi texts.

• ĀTUR

  Cross-Reference

  "fire." See ĀDUR and ĀTAŠ.

• AΘURĀ

  Cross-Reference

  Achaemenid province. See ASSYRIA.

• ĀΘVIYA

  cross-reference

  in the Avestan Hōm Yast (Y. 9.7) the second mortal to press the haoma and the father of Θraētaona (Ferīdūn).

• AUBERGINE

  Cross-Reference

  See BĀDENJĀN.

• AUDH

  Cross-Reference

  See AVADH.

• AUGUSTINE

  G. Widengren

  prominent Christian theologian and philosopher, born 354 in Thagaste, Numidia.

• AURELIUS VICTOR

  M. L. Chaumont

  born in Africa ca. 325/330, held high positions under Julian and Theodosius.

• AUSTRIA

  Helmut Slaby

  Diplomatic and commercial relations between Austria and Persia have a long history, stretching back to the sixteenth century.

• AUSTRIA ii. IRANIAN STUDIES IN

  X. Tremblay and N. Rastegar

  The present entry is intended as a synthetic history of the organization of Iranian studies (1) up to 1918 in all the Habsburg “hereditary countries,” which included the present Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, also parts of Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, and (2) since 1918 in the Republic of Austria exclusively.

• AUTIYĀRA

  R. Schmitt

  name of a district of the satrapy Armina of the Achaemenid empire.

• AUTOPHRADATES

  M. A. Dandamayev

  name of several Achaemenid officials, especially the satrap of Lydia under the  Artaxerxes II, from 391 B.C. until the late 350s.

• AVA

  C. E. Bosworth

  the basic modern form of the name of two small towns of northern Persia, normally written Āba in medieval Islamic sources.

• AVADĀNA

  R. E. Emmerick

  Sanskrit term for a category of Buddhist narrative literature.

• AVADH

  R. B. Barnett

  an ancient cultural and administrative region lying between the Himalayas and the Ganges in North India, named after Ayodhyā, the setting of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.

• AVALOKITEŚVARA-DHĀRAṆĪ

  R. E. Emmerick

  name given by H. W. Bailey to a Buddhist text written in archaizing Late Khotanese, ending with a dhāraṇī (Skt. “spell, sacred formula”) preceded by homage to the bodhisattvas.

• AVARAYR

  R. Hewsen

  a village in Armenia in the principality of Artaz southeast of the Iranian town of Mākū.

• ĀVĀZ

  G. Tsuge

  in modern Persian “song” (of any kind) or, more broadly, “music.”

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• AVERY, PETER

  David Blow

  (1923-2008), British scholar of Persian literature and history.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• AVESTA

  J. Kellens

  the holy book of the Zoroastrians.

• AVESTAN GEOGRAPHY

  G. Gnoli

  Geographical references in the Avesta are limited to the regions on the eastern Iranian plateau and on the Indo-Iranian border.

• AVESTAN LANGUAGE I-III

  K. Hoffmann

  the Old Iranian language of the Avesta. i. The Avestan script. ii. The phonology of Avestan. iii. The grammar of Avestan.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• AVESTAN LANGUAGE iv. AVESTAN SYNTAX

  Jean Kellens

  The only complete syntax of Avestan which is still usable today is H. Reichelt’sAwestisches Elementarbuch.

• AVESTAN PEOPLE

  M. Boyce

  The term Avestan people is used here to include both Zoroaster’s own tribe, with that of his patron, Kavi Vištāspa, and those peoples settled in Eastern Iran.

• AVIATION

  Abbas Atrvash

  i. The Formation of the Iranian Air Force (1923-27). ii. Junkers Airline in Iran (1927-32). iii. Iranian State Airlines of the Ministry of Post and Telegram (1938-46). iv. Privately Owned Commercial Airlines (1945-62). v. State Owned Commercial Airline (1962-79). vi. Multiple Commercial Airlines (1979-2007).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• AVICENNA

  Multiple Authors

  celebrated philosopher and physician philosopher (d. 1037).

• AVICENNA i. Introductory note

  M. Mahdi

  philosopher who began a movement away from explicitness about the central question of the relation between philosophy and religion.

• AVICENNA ii. Biography

  D. Gutas

  philosopher whose biography presents the paradox that although more material is available for its study than is average for a Muslim scholar of his caliber, it has received little critical attention.

• AVICENNA iii. Logic

  Sh. B. Abed

  philosopher whose works on logic are extant, and most of them have been published. With the exception of two Persian works, Dāneš-nāma-ye ʿalāʾī and Andar dāneš-e rag, all of his works are written in Arabic.

• AVICENNA iv. Metaphysics

  M. E. Marmura

  a philosopher whose metaphysical system is one of the most comprehensive and detailed in the history of philosophy.

• AVICENNA v. Mysticism

  D. Gutas

  a philosopher whose philosophical system, rooted in the Aristotelian tradition, is thoroughly rationalistic and intrinsically alien to the principles of Sufism as it had developed until his time.

• AVICENNA vi. Psychology

  F. Rahman

  a psychology or doctrine of the soul that has an Aristotelian base with a strong Neoplatonic superstructure.

• AVICENNA vii. Practical Sciences

  M. Mahdi

  an account of practical science that is laconic and dispersed in minor tracts and in the opening and closing passages of his comprehensive encyclopedic works.

• AVICENNA viii. Mathematics and Physical Sciences

  G. Saliba

  referred to, in his encyclopedic work the Šefāʾ, as the mathematical sciences; includes both mathematics and astronomy.

• AVICENNA ix. Music

  O. Wright

  from the discussion in his Ketāb al-najāt, Dāneš-nāma-ye ʿalāʾī, and Ketāb al-Šefāʾ. He considers music one of the mathematical sciences (the medieval quadrivium).

• AVICENNA x. Medicine and Biology

  B. Musallam

  at his time natural philosophy and medicine overlapped, sharing a large area of the field that today we call biology.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• AVICENNA xi. Persian Works

  M. Achena

  only two works in Persian have come down to us: a short book Andar dāneš-e rag (On the science of the pulse), and a treatise on philosophy.

• AVICENNA xii. The impact of Avicenna’s philosophical works on the West

  S. Van Riet

  Western European acquaintance with Avicenna began when Latin versions of some of his Arabic works came out in the mid-12th to late 13th centuries.

• AVICENNA xiii. The influence of Avicenna on medical studies in the West

  U. Weisser

  From the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century Avicenna held a high place in Western European medical studies.

• ĀVĪŠAN

  R. A. Parsa

  wild thyme. Varieties in Iran are carminative, stomachic, diuretic, digestive, and flatulent. They may be used for liver and respiratory disorders.

• AVROMAN

  D. N. MacKenzie

  a mountainous region on the western frontier of Persian Kurdistan.

• AVROMAN DOCUMENTS

  D. N. MacKenzie

  three parchments found in a cave in the Kūh-e Sālān.

• AVROMANI

  D. N. MacKenzie

  the dialect of Avroman, properly Hawrāmi, the most archaic of the Gōrāni group.

• AWĀʾEL AL-MAQĀLĀT

  M. J. McDermott

  a Shiʿite doctrinal work written in Baghdad.

• AWAN

  M. W. Stolper

  name of a place in ancient western Iran, the nominal dynastic seat of Elamite rulers in the late third millennium B.C.

• ʿAWĀREF AL-MAʿĀREF

  W. C. Chittick

  a classic work on Sufism by Šehāb-al-dīn Sohravardī (1145-1234)

• ʿAWĀREŻ

  W. Floor

  term used since 4th/10th century to denote extraordinary imposts of various kinds, the nature of which differed per area and historic period.

• ʿAWFĪ, SADĪD-AL-DĪN

  J. Matīnī

  an important Persian writer of the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries.

• AWḤAD-AL-DĪN KERMĀNĪ

  Z. Safa

  a famous mystic of the 6th/12th century.

• AWḤADĪ MARĀḠAʾĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  (born ca. 673/1274-75 in Marāḡa and died there in 738/1338), a poet who flourished in the reign of Abū Saʿīd Bahādor Khan (r. 716/1316-736/1335).

• AWLĪĀʾ

  H. Algar

  a term commonly translated in European languages as “saints” or the equivalent.

• AWLĪĀʾALLĀH ĀMOLĪ

  W. Madelung

  the author of the history of Rūyān, Tārīḵ-e Rūyān, written about 760/1359.

• AWQĀF

  Cross-Reference

  See WAQF (pending).

• AWRANGĀBĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY AWRANGĀBĀDĪ.

• AWRANGĀBĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ AWRANGĀBĀDĪ.

• AWRANGĀBĀDĪ, SHAH NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN

  M. L. Siddiqui

  the celebrated Češtī saint said to be a descendant of Abū Bakr, the first caliph, in the line of Šehāb-al-dīn Sohravardī.

• AWRANGZĒB

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• AWRŌMĀN

  Cross-Reference

  or AWRŌMĀNI, See AVROMAN; AVROMANI.

• AWṢĀF AL-AŠRĀF

  G. M. Wickens

  a short mystical-ethical work in Persian by Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī, written late in life, ca. 670/1271-72.

• AWTĀD

  Cross-Reference

  See ABDĀL; AWLĪĀʾ.

• AXSE

  M. L. Chaumont

  name of a Parthian hostage in Rome, inscribed in the dedication of an epitaph engraved on a marble plaque and discovered at the Forum Boarium in Rome.

• ĀXŠTI

  B. Schlerath

  (Avestan) “Peace, contract of peace.”

• AXT

  M. F. Kanga

  a sorcerer and, according to Zoroastrian tradition, a vehement, early opponent of the Religion.

• AXTAR

  W. Eilers

  (Middle and New Persian) “star” or “constellation.”

• AXTARMĀR

  A. Tafażżolī

  “astronomer.” The astronomers were included in the category of the third of the four Sasanian social classes, i.e., the class of the scribes, together with the physicians and poets.

• ĀXWARR

  W. Eilers

  Middle Persian term for “manger” or “stall” borrowed into Armenian as axoṙ.

• ĀXWARRBED

  A. Tafażżolī

  Middle Iranian term for the “Stablemaster, Royal Equerry.”

• ĀY ḴĀNOM

  O. Bernard

  or AÏ KHANUM (Tepe), a local Uzbek name designating the site of an important Greek colonial city in northern Afghanistan excavated since 1965 by a French mission and which belonged to a powerful hellenistic state born of Alexander’s conquest in Central Asia (329-27 B.C.)

• AY TĪMŪR

  J. M. Smith, Jr.

  Sarbadār commander and ruler, “the son of a slave”.

• ĀYADANA

  J. Duchesne-Guillemin

  “place of cult.” The term occurs once in the Old Persian Bīstūn inscription of Darius I.

• AYĀDGĀR Ī JĀMĀSPĪG

  M. Boyce

  “Memorial of Jāmāsp,” a short but important Zoroastrian work in Middle Persian, also known as the Jāmāspī and Jāmāsp-nāma.

• AYĀDGĀR Ī WUZURGMIHR

  S. Shaked

  a popular-religious andarz composition in Pahlavi, attributed to one of the best-known sages of the Sasanian period, Wuzurgmihr (Bozorgmehr) ī Buxtagān, who was active at the court of Ḵosrow I Anōšīravān (531-79 A.D.).

• AYĀDGĀR Ī ZARĒRĀN

  M. Boyce

  “Memorial of Zarēr,” a short Pahlavi text which is the only surviving specimen in that language of ancient Iranian epic poetry.

• AYĀDĪ-E AMR ALLĀH

  D. M. MacEoin

  “Hands of the Cause of God”, term used in Bahaʾism to designate the highest rank of the appointed religious hierarchy.

• AʿYĀN AL-ŠĪʿA

  W. Ende

  a monumental dictionary (56 vols. altogether) of Shiʿite celebrities and learned men compiled by the Shiʿite scholar Sayyed Moḥsen Amīn ʿĀmelī (d. 1952).

• ĀYANDA

  Ī. Afšār

  Persian journal which began publication in Tīr, 1304 Š./June-July, 1925, under the editorship of its founder, Maḥmūd Afšār (1893-1983).

• ĀYANDAGĀN

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton and P. Mohajer

  a daily morning newspaper that first appeared in Tehran on 16 December, 1967.

• ĀYATALLĀH

  H. Algar

  (Sign of God; Engl. Ayatullah, Ayatollah), an honorific title awarded by popular usage to mojtaheds, particularly the foremost among them.

• ĀYATĪ, ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN

  Ī. Afšār

  (b. 1288/1871; d. 1332 Š./1953), son of Mollā Moḥammad-Taqī Āḵūnd Taftī, Bahāʾi missionary, journalist, author, and teacher.

• AYĀZ, ABU’L-NAJM

  J. Matīnī

  favorite Turkish slave of the Ghaznavid Sultan Maḥmūd, whose passion for Ayāz is a recurrent theme in Persian poetry, where he is also called Ayās or Āyāz.

• AYBAK

  L. Dupree

  (Uzbek “cave dweller”), now called Samangān, capital of Samangān province, associated with several important archeological sites.

• AYBAK, QOṬB-AL-DĪN

  N. H. Zaidi

   founder of the Moʿezzī or Slave Dynasty and the first Muslim king of India, also called Ībak (moon chieftain) and Aybak Šel.

• ĀYENAHĀ-YE DARDĀR

  Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami

  (Mirrors with cover doors, Tehran, 1992), one of the last major works by Hushang Golshiri.

• AYMĀQ

  A. Janata

  (Turk. Oymaq), a term designating tribal peoples in Khorasan and Afghanistan, mostly semi-nomadic or semi-sedentary, in contrast to the fully sedentary, non-tribal population of the area.

• ʿAYN-AL-DAWLA, ʿABD-AL-MAJĪD

  J. Calmard

  ATĀBAK-E AʿẒAM (1845-1926) son of Solṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā ʿAżod-al-dawla, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah’s forty-eighth son and a prominent political figure of Moẓaffar-al-dīn Shah’s reign (1896-1907).

• ʿAYN-AL-QOŻĀT HAMADĀNĪ

  G. Böwering

  (492/1098-526/1131), brilliant mystic philosopher and Sufi martyr.

• AYNALLŪ

  P. Oberling

  (or ĪNALLŪ, ĪNĀLŪ, ĪMĀNLŪ), a tribe of Ḡozz Turkic origin inhabiting Azerbaijan, central Iran and Fārs.

• ʿAYNI, KAMĀL

  Habib Borjian

  Tajik literary critic. Born with the birth name Kamāl-al-Din, and received his early education at home in burgeoning Soviet Russian schools

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿAYNĪ, ṢADR-AL-DĪN

  K. Hitchins

  (1878-1954), poet, novelist, and the leading figure of Soviet Tajik literature, born 18 Rabīʿ II 1295/15 April 1878 in the village of Sāktarī in the emirate of Bukhara, a Russian protectorate.

• AYŌKĒN

  M. Shaki

  a Middle Persian legal term denoting the category of persons to whom descends the obligation of stūrīh (marriage by proxy or substitution).

• AYRARAT

  R. H. Hewsen

  region of central Armenia in the broad plain of the upper Araxes.

• ĀYRĪMLŪ

  P. Oberling

  (in Persian often Āyromlū), Turkic tribe of western Azerbaijan.

• ĀYROM, MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN KHAN

  M. Amanat

  army commander and the head of the police under Reżā Shah (r. 1304-20 Š./1925-41).

• AYVĀN

  O. Grabar

  (palace, veranda, balcony, portico), a Persian word used also in Arabic (īwān, līwān) and Turkish.

• AYVĀN-E KESRĀ

  E. J. Keall

  (or ṬĀQ-E KESRĀ) the Palace of Ḵosrow at Ctesiphon, the most famous of all Sasanian monuments and a landmark in the history of architecture, now only an imposing brick ruin.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿAYYĀR

  Cl. Cahen, W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

  a noun meaning literally “vagabond,” applied to members of medieval fotowwa (fotūwa) brotherhoods and comparable popular organizations.

• ʿAYYĀŠĪ, ABU’L-NAŻR MOḤAMMAD

  I. K. Poonawala

  Imami jurist and scholar of the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries.

• AYYOHAʾL-WALAD

  I. Abbas

  a short treatise by Abū Ḥāmed Moḥammad Ḡazālī Ṭūsī (fl. 450-505/1058-1111), originally composed in Persian.

• AYYŪB KHAN, MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

  B. AMĪR ŠĒR ʿALĪ KHAN. See MOḤAMMAD AYYŪB KHAN.

• AYYUBIDS

  R. S. Humphreys

  (Ar. Banū Ayyūb), a Kurdish family who first became prominent as members of the Zangid military establishment in Syria in the mid-sixth/twelfth century.

• ʿAYYŪQĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  a poet of the fifth/eleventh century who versified the romance of Varqa o Golšāh.

• ĀZ

  J. P. Asmussen

  Iranian demon known from Zoroastrian, Zurvanite, and, especially, Manichean sources.

• ĀZĀD

  M. Bazin

  Zelkova crenata or Siberian elm, a tree of the Ulmaceae family, for which also other scientific names, such as Zelkova carpinifolia, Zelkova hyrcana, Planera crenata, and Planera Richardi, have been proposed.

• ĀZĀD (Iranian Nobility)

  M. L. Chaumont, C. Toumanoff

  (older ĀZĀT), a class of the Iranian nobility.

• ĀZĀD BELGRĀMĪ

  M. Siddiqi

  Major Indo-Muslim poet, biographer, and composer of chronograms, also known as Ḥassān-al-Hend (fl. 1116-1200/1704-86).

• ĀZĀD FĪRŪZ

  A. Tafażżolī

  governor of Bahrain and the surrounding area in the time of Ḵosrow (probably Ḵosrow II Parvēz).

• ĀZĀD KHAN AFḠĀN

  J. R. Perry

  (d. 1781), a major contender for supremacy in western Iran after the death of Nāder Shah Afšār (r. 1736-47).

• ĀZĀD TABRIZI

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  physician, anthologist, and translator (b. Tehran, ca. 1854; d. Paris, 1936).

• ĀZĀD, ʿABD-AL-QADIR

  Bāqer ʿĀqeli

  (1893-1973), journalist, politician, Majles deputy, member of opposition groups.

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• ĀZĀD, MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN

  K. N. Pandita

  Scholar and writer in Urdu and Persian, born about 1834 in Delhi.

• ĀZĀDA

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  name of a Roman slave-girl of Bahrām Gōr.

• AZADARAN-E BAYAL

  MAHYAR ENTEZARI

  a collection of short stories by Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Sāʿedi, the prolific engagé writer of drama and fiction.

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• ʿAZĀDĀRĪ

  J. Calmard

  to hold a commemoration of the dead, by extension, mourning, a word deriving from Arabic ʿazāʾ, which means commemorating the dead.

• ĀZĀḎBEH B. BĀNEGĀN

  C. E. Bosworth

  a dehqān (landowner) of Hamadān, marzbān (governor) in the former Lakhmid capital of Ḥīra in central Iraq during the years preceding the Arab conquest of that province.

• ĀZĀDĪ

  N. Parvīn

  (Freedom), the name of the several Persian journals.

• ĀZĀDĪSTĀN

  N. Parvīn

  the title of a Persian educational magazine which came out at Tabrīz in Jawzā, 1299/June-August, 1920.

• ĀZĀDSARV

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  Two bearers of this name are known.

• ĀZĀDVĀR

  C. E. Bosworth

  (or Āzaḏvār), a small town of Khorasan in the district (kūra, rostāq) of Jovayn, which flourished in medieval Islamic times, apparently down to the Il-khanid period.

• AŻĀʿELḴᵛĀNĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See MANĀQEB ḴᵛĀNĪ.

• AZAL

  J. van Ess

  Arabic theological term derived from Pahlavi a-sar “without head” and meaning, already in early Muʿtazilite kalām, “eternity a parte ante,” as opposite to abad, “eternity a parte post.”

• AZALI BABISM

  D. M. MacEoin

  designation of a religious faction which takes its name from Mīrzā Yaḥyā Nūrī Ṣobḥ-e Azal (about 1246-1330/1830-1912), considered by his followers to have been the legitimate successor to the Bāb.

• AʿẒAM KHAN

  ʿA. Ḥabībī

  the fifth son of Amir Dōst Moḥammad Khan and the third amir of the Moḥammadzay line, ruler of Afghanistan in 1284/1867-1285/1868.

• ĀŽANG

  N. Parvīn

  (Wrinkle), a Persian newspaper which commenced publication in Esfand, 1332 Š./February, 1954, and lasted until 1353 Š./1974.

• ĀZAR

  Cross-Reference

  father of Abraham. See EBRĀHĪM.

• ĀẔAR BĪGDELĪ

  J. Matīnī

  (ĀḎAR BĪGDELĪ), poet and author of a taḏkera (biographical anthology) of about 850 Persian poets, complied in 1174/1760.

• ĀẔAR KAYVĀN

  H. Corbin

  (ĀḎAR KAYVĀN;  d. between 1609 and 1618), a Zoroastrian high priest and native of Fārs who emigrated to India and became the founder of the Zoroastrian Ešrāqī or Illuminative School.

• ĀẔAR ḴORDĀD

  cross-reference

  See ĀDUR FARNBAG.

• AẔAR “fire”

  cross-reference

  See ĀDUR.

• ĀẔARBĀDAGĀN

  cross-reference

  See AZERBAIJAN.

• ĀẔARBĀY(E)JĀN

  cross-reference

  See AZERBAIJAN.

• ĀẔARBĀYJĀN JOURNAL

  N. Parvīn

  (ĀḎARBĀY[E]JĀN), the title of a satirical-political journal published at Tabrīz in 1907.

• ĀẔARĪ language

  cross-reference

  the ancient language of Azerbaijan. See AZERBAIJAN vii.

• ĀẔARĪ ṬŪSĪ

  A. ʿA. Rajāʾī

  (ĀḎARĪ ṬŪSĪ), NŪR-AL-DĪN (or FAḴR-AL-DĪN) ḤAMZA B. ʿALĪ MALEK ESFARĀYENĪ BAYHAQĪ, Shiʿite Sufi poet (fl. 1382-1462).

• ĀZARMĪGDUXT

  Ph. Gignoux

  Sasanian queen who according to Ṭabarī ruled for a few months in 630.

• ĀẔARŠAHR

  ʿA. ʿA. Kārang

  (or DEHḴᵛĀRAQĀN; in the local Azeri Turkish: Toḵargān), a town and a district (baḵš) of the šahrestān of Tabrīz.

• AŽDAHĀ

  P. O. Skjærvø, Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh, J. R. Russell

  “dragon,” various kinds of snake-like, mostly gigantic, monsters living in the air, on earth, or in the sea (also designated by other terms) sometimes connected with natural phenomena, especially rain and eclipses.

• AZDĀKARA

  M. Dandamayev

  (from Old Persian azdā- “announcement” and kara- “maker”), officials of the Achaemenid chancery, the heralds, who made known, for example, the government edicts, court sentences.

• AZDI, ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR

  G. R. Hawting

  b. ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān, a governor of Khorasan who came into conflict with the caliph al-Manṣur, executed, probably in 142/759-60.

• AZDĪ, MOḤAMMAD

  G. R. Hawting

  B. RAWWĀD, a notable of Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 3rd/9th century, known mainly in connection with the revolt of Bābak, the leader of the Ḵorrami movement.

• AZERBAIJAN

  Multiple Authors

  (Āḏarbāy[e]jān), historical region of northwestern Iran, east of Lake Urmia, since the Achaemenid era.

• AZERBAIJAN i. Geography

  X. de Planhol

  characterized by volcanic constructions—along the “volcanic cicatrix” that follows the internal ridge of the Zagros and marks its contact with the central Iranian plateau. 

• AZERBAIJAN ii. Archeology

  W. Kleiss

  comprises the two Iranian provinces of West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan, with administrative centers at Urmia (before 1979 Reżāʾīya) and Tabrīz respectively; it does not include “Northern Azerbaijan,” centered on Baku, which since 1829 has belonged to the Russian empire.

• AZERBAIJAN iii. Pre-Islamic History

  K. Schippmann

  the northwestern province of Azerbaijan can look back on a long history. For the earliest periods, however, archeological research has barely begun.

• AZERBAIJAN iv. Islamic History to 1941

  C. E. Bosworth

  Background. Azerbaijan formed a separate province of the early Islamic caliphate, but its precise borders varied in different periods.

• AZERBAIJAN v. History from 1941 to 1947

  B. Kuniholm

  occupation reasons for which included creation of a supply route from the Persian Gulf to Russia and protection of allied interests from the threat posed by the Germans.

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• AZERBAIJAN vi. Population and its Occupations and Culture

  R. Tapper

  tribalism is no longer of great social relevance for most Azerbaijanis, but most have a recent history of tribal allegiances, whether Turkish or Kurdish.

• AZERBAIJAN vii. The Iranian Language of Azerbaijan

  E. Yarshater

  Āḏarī (Ar. al-āḏarīya) was the Iranian language of Azerbaijan before the spread of the Turkish language, commonly called Azeri, in the region.

• AZERBAIJAN viii. Azeri Turkish

  G. Doerfer

  Oghuz languages were earlier grouped into Turkish (of Turkey), Azeri, and Turkmen, but recent research has modified this simple picture.

• AZERBAIJAN ix. Iranian Elements in Azeri Turkish

  L. Johanson

  perhaps after Uzbek, the Turkic language upon which Iranian has exerted the strongest impact—mainly in phonology, syntax and vocabulary, less in morphology.

• AZERBAIJAN x. Azeri Turkish Literature

  H. Javadi and K. Burrill

  Due to bilingualism among the educated Turkic-speaking people of the area the use of Azeri prose was widespread until the reign of Reżā Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925-41).

• AZERBAIJAN xi. Music of Azerbaijan

  J. During

  connected with the Irano-Arabo-Turkish art of the maqām; the Iranian elements in the development of the Azeri tradition were numerous.

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• AZERBAIJAN xii. MONUMENTS

  Wolfram Kleiss

  The Iranian provinces of Azerbaijan, both West and East, possess a large number of monuments from all periods of history.

• AZES

  D. W. Mac Dowell

  the name of two Indo-Scythian kings of the major dynasty ruling an empire based on the Punjab and Indus valley from about 50 B.C. to A.D. 30.

• AẒFARĪ GŪRGĀNĪ

  M. Baqir

  18th-century Indo-Persian poet and lexicographer.

• AZHAR-E ḴAR

  L. P. Smirnova

  “Azhar the ass,” nickname of AZHAR B. YAḤYĀ B. ZOHAYR B. FARQAD, third cousin, and military commander of the Saffarid amirs Yaʿqūb and ʿAmr b. Layṯ.

• AŽI

  Cross-Reference

  (DAHĀKA). See AŽDAHĀ.

• AZILISES

  D. W. MacDowall

  Indo-Scythian king of the dynasty of Azes in the Indus valley about the beginning of the Christian era.  

• ʿAẒĪM NAVĀZ KHAN BAHĀDOR

  M. Baqir

  author of a Sunni account in Persian of the martyrdom of Imam Ḥosayn and superintendent of the compilation of a political and natural history of the Carnatic and of India in general. (fl. 1859).

• ʿAẒĪMĀBĀD

  Q. Ahmad

  (Patna), ancient Pataliputra, present capital of Bihar state in northeast India.

• ĀZĪN JOŠNAS

  A. Tafażżolī

  (ĀḎĪN JOŠNAS), a military commander of the Sasanian Hormazd IV (r. 579-90), killed in Hamadān on his way to fight the rebellious general Bahrām Čōbin.

• ĀŽĪR

  N. Parvīn

  “Alarm bell,” a radical leftist Persian newspaper, printed at Tehran, May 1943 to June, 1945.

• AZIŠMĀND

  M. Shaki

  “obstructed or hampered justice," one of the few Middle Persian exclusively legal terms.

• ʿAZĪZ KHAN MOKRĪ

  J. Calmard

  SARDĀR-E KOLL (1792-1871), an army chief and dignitary of Qajar Iran.

• ʿAZĪZ NASAFĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See NASAFĪ, ʿAZĪZ.

• ʿAZĪZ-AL-DĪN, MOSTAWFĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ABŪ NAṢR MOSTAWFĪ.

• ʿAZĪZ-AL-MOLK

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿALĪ EBRĀHĪM KHAN.

• ʿAZĪZ-AL-SOLṬĀN

  A. Amanat

  (1879-1940), better known as Malījak(-e) Ṯānī [II], the boy favorite of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah Qājār. 

• ʿAŻOD-AL-DAWLA ŠĪRZĀD

  Cross-Reference

  See ŠĪRZĀD.

• ʿAŻOD-AL-DAWLA, ABŪ ŠOJĀʾ FANNĀ ḴOSROW

  Ch. Bürgel and R. Mottahedeh

  (936-83), the greatest Buyid monarch and the most powerful ruler in the Islamic East in the last years of his life. 

• ʿAŻOD-AL-DĪN ĪJĪ

  J. van Ess

  famous Shafeʿite jurist and Asḥʿarite theologian.

• ʿAŻOD-AL-MOLK, ʿALĪ REŻĀ KHAN

  Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

  during the Tobacco protest of 1891-92, ʿone of the chief mediators between the shah and the ʿolamāʾ of Tehran; regent of Iran in 1909-10.

• ʿAŻOD-AL-MOLK, MOḤAMMAD ḤOSAYN

  Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

  (d. 1867), a senior official in the first part of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah Qājār’s reign. 

• AZRAQĪ HERAVĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi Motlagh

  the pen-name of Abū Bakr b. Esmāʿīl Warrāq of Herat, a Persian poet of the 5th/11th century.

• ĀZŪITI-

  M. Boyce

  an Avestan word meaning “oblation of fat,” also a divine being representing Fatness or Plenty.

• As~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Cross-Reference

  list of all the figure and plate images in the As–Az entries