Table of Contents

  • 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.

  • AŠRAF GĪLĀNĪ

    M. Rahman

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

  • AŠRAF ḠILZAY

    D. Balland

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

  • AŠRAF

    Cross-Reference

    town in Māzandarān. See BEHŠAHR.

  • AŠRAF-ʿALĪ KHAN FOḠĀN

    M. Baqir

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

  • AŠRAFI

    B. Fragner

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

  • AŠRAFĪ

    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 father of Aššurbanipal. Here only Assarhaddon’s relations with the Cimmerians and Mannians, and the Medes, are described. The Cimmerians  with an admixture of Scythians came down from the Caucasus about 700 B.C. and began to press on the eastern borders of Assyria.

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  • 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

    The Cimmerians (Gimirru) had entered Assyria about 700 B.C. but were stopped by Assarhaddon and so turned towards Lydia (Luddu). The king of Lydia, Gyges (Gūgu, Guggu), who had founded the Mermandes dynasty, following the advice of the god Aššur in a dream, sent a delegation to Aššurbanipal to ask for assistance.

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  • ASSYRIA

    M. Dandamayev, È. Grantovskiĭ, K. Schippmann

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

  • ASSYRIA i. The Kingdom of Assyria and its Relations with Iran

    M. Dandamayev and È. Grantovskiĭ

    Texts belonging to the 9th-7th centuries B.C. provide valuable data on the expeditions of Assyrian kings to Iranian territory, including “Messages to the Deity” and summaries of royal victories presented in geographical order.

  • ASSYRIA ii. Achaemenid Aθurā

    M. Dandamayev

    Old Persian Aθurā “Assyria” goes back to Akkadian Aššur, the name of the city of Aššur and of the original Assyrian territory on the middle course of the Tigris.

  • ASSYRIA iii. Parthian Assur

    K. Schippmann

    In 141 B.C. the Parthian king Mithridates I conquered large parts of Mesopotamia, including probably Assyria. Although the Parthians were soon driven back out of Mesopotamia, Assur finally fell under Parthian influence from the reign of Mithridates II onwards.

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  • ASSYRIANS IN IRAN

    R. Macuch, A. Ishaya

    The development of the modern concept of “Assyrians” among the East Syrian Christian communities began with Botta’s excavation of the palace of Sargon II in Khorsabad (1843), followed by Layard’s discovery of Nineveh. This research opened the eyes, not only of the West, but also of the ethnically nameless Aramean population in these regions which had been satisfied to identify itself by religions denominations.

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  • ASSYRIANS IN IRAN i. The Assyrian community (Āšūrīān) in Iran

    R. Macuch

    Clearly, this small ethnic group divided into different confessions needed special arguments for accepting a standard name “Assyrians” after this term had already been accepted, for practical reasons, by others.

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  • ASSYRIANS IN IRAN ii. Literature of the Assyrians in Iran

    R. Macuch

    Although there were four missionary printing-houses in Urmia before the end of World War I, the Iranian Assyrian writers and poets were producing much more than they were able to publish. Many of their literary products remained in manuscript or were published only posthumously.

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  • ASSYRIANS IN IRAN iii. Assyrian Settlements Outside of Iran

    A. Ishaya

    The dispersion of the Assyrians took place during World War I, when the whole nation was uprooted from its homegrounds. The diaspora is still in progress. Presently in the Middle East, besides Iran, Assyrian settlements are located in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.

  • 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.

  • AŠTĀD

    G. Gnoli

    Old Iranian female deity of rectitude and justice.

  • AŠTĀD 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.

  • ASTARA

    Multiple Authors

    a town and sub-province in the province of Ardabil, northern Iran.

  • ĀSTĀRĀ i. Town and sub-province

    M. Bazin

    The rural inhabitants grow rice, wheat, and vegetables on the coastal plain and wheat, corn (maize), and fruit trees on the lower slopes of the mountains, and graze flocks and herds between qešlāq and yeylāq

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  • ASTARA ii. Population, 1956-2011

    Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

    This article deals with the growth of Astara from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status.

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  • 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.

  • AŠTARJĀN

    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.