Table of Contents

  • AVERY, PETER

    David Blow

    The most important part of Avery’s published works consists of translations of Persian poetry, in particular the ghazals (ḡazal) of Hafez, the Persian poet for whom he felt a special empathy. He began translating some of the ghazals while still a student at SOAS.

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  • AVESTA

    Multiple Authors

    the holy book of the Zoroastrians.

  • AVESTA i. Survey of the history and contents of the book

    J. Kellens

    “Avesta” is the name the Mazdean (Mazdayasnian) religious tradition gives to the collection of its sacred texts. The etymology and the exact meaning of the name (Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾk/abestāg) can not be considered established.

  • AVESTA ii. Middle Persian Translations

    Alberto Cantera

    The ritual Avestan texts belonging to the great rituals are transmitted through two different kinds of manuscripts: the Sāde manuscripts, containing only the Avestan text, and the so-called Pahlavi manuscripts, which include the Pahlavi translations.

  • 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 Avestan script is based on the Pahlavi script in its cursive form. The earliest Pahlavi manuscripts date from the fourteenth century A.D., but the Pahlavi cursive script must have developed from the Aramaic script already in the first centuries A.D.

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  • 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

    Originally the Iranian government had approached the U.S. administration to negotiate the purchase of American military aircrafts and to organize the training of pilots and technicians. But the Americans rejected the request, arguing that such an agreement would violate the disarmement clauses of the post-World War I peace treaties.

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  • AVICENNA

    Multiple Authors

    Latin form of the name of the outstanding philosopher and physician of the medieval period,  Abū ʿAlī Ḥosayn Ebn Sīnā (d. 1037).