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.