Table of Contents

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.