Table of Contents

  • 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

    Throughout her life, Ghodsieh Ashraf repeatedly observed, not without pride, that her material belongings could be packed into one suitcase. Though she may not have been an easy taskmaster, she was served by an unflagging joie de vivre and cut a figure distinct from the traditional models of her times.

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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 Except in remote areas they have been replaced by diesel or electrically-driven mills, and old machinery has fallen derelict.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. The Iranians left their imprint above all on the art of governing.

  • 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

    The Ask springs, like those in other places around the base of Damāvand, are as yet used only by the local inhabitants. It remains to be seen whether they would repay commercial development (in the form of spa baths, bottling plants, etc.).

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  • ĀŠKĀBĀD

    Cross-Reference

    See ASHKHABAD.

  • AŠKĀNĪĀN

    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.

  • ʿASKARĪ, ʿALĪ AL-HĀDĪ

    Cross-Reference

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

  • AŠKAŠ

    Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

    an Iranian hero in the reign of Kay Ḵosrow.

  • AŠKBŌS

    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.

  • AŠŌ-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. Skjærvø

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

  • ASOŁIK

    Michel van Esbroeck

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

  • AŠŌQAR

    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.