Table of Contents

• DARĪ

  GILBERT LAZARD

  name given to the New Persian literary language at a very early date and widely attested in Arabic and Persian texts since the 10th century.

• DARĪ IN AFGHANISTAN

  Cross-Reference

  See AFGHANISTAN v. LANGUAGES. 

• ḎARĪʿA elā TAṢĀNĪF al-ŠĪʿA

  Etan Kohlberg

  a comprehensive bibliography of Imami Shiʿite works in twenty-five volumes compiled by Shaikh Moḥammad-Moḥsen Āqā Bozorg Ṭehrānī (1876-1970); it contains about 55,000 entries for works written up to 1950-51.

• DARIC

  Michael Alram

  (Gk. dareikós statḗr), Achaemenid gold coin of ca. 8.4 gr, which was introduced by Darius I (r. 522-486 BCE) toward the end of the 6th century. The daric and the similar silver coin, the siglos (Gk. síglos medikós), represented the bimetallic monetary standard that the Achaemenids developed from that of the Lydians.

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• DARĪGBED

  Richard N. Frye

  title of a low-ranking official at the Sasanian court.

• DARIUS

  Multiple Authors

  (NPers. Darīūš, Dārā), name of several Achaemenid and Parthian rulers and princes.

• DARIUS i. The Name

  Rudiger Schmitt

  the common Latin form of Greek Dareîos, itself a shortened rendering of Old Persian five-syllable Dārayavauš, the throne name of Darius the Great and two other kings of the Achaemenid dynasty, which thus enjoyed considerable popularity among noblemen in later periods

• DARIUS ii. Darius the Mede

  Richard N. Frye

  In the Old Testament Book of Daniel Darius the Mede is mentioned (5:30-31) as ruler after the slaying of the “Chaldean king” Belshazzar.

• DARIUS iii. Darius I the Great

  A. Shapur Shahbazi

  third Achaemenid king of kings (r. 29 September 522-October 486 BCE). Once he gained power, Darius placed the empire on foundations that lasted for nearly two centuries and influenced the organization of subsequent states, including the Seleucid and Roman empires.

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• DARIUS iv. Darius II

  Heleen Sanchisi-Weerdenburg

  the sixth Achaemenid king of kings (r. February 423- March 403 B.C.E.). He had been satrap of Hyrcania. Darius was his throne name; his given name is reported in classical sources as Ochus.

• DARIUS v. Darius III

  EIr.

  (b. ca. 380 BCE, d. mid-330), the last Achaemenid king. The lack of sources is especially severe for his life and reign. There are no Persian royal texts or monuments, and what is known comes almost solely from the Greek historians, who depicted his career mainly as a contrast to the brilliant first few years of Alexander the Great.

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• DARIUS vi. Achaemenid Princes

  Rudiger Schmitt

  the name of two Achaemenid princes in addition to the emperors who bore it.

• DARIUS vii. Parthian Princes

  Rudiger Schmitt

  In 64 B.C.E. while his father, Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (ca. 121/20-63 B.C.E.), was fighting his last, losing campaign against the troops of the Roman general Pompey (106-48 B.C.E.), the child Darius was taken prisoner, along with several brothers and his sister Eupatra, in Phanagoria

• DARIUS viii. Darius Son of Artabanus

  Marie Louise Chaumont

  A son of the Parthian king Artabanus II named Darius was sent as a hostage to Rome shortly after an interview between Artabanus and the Roman legate for Syria, Vitellius, in 37 C.E.

• DARJAZĪN

  Parviz Aḏkāʾī

  (or Dargazīn), name of two rural subdistricts (dehestāns) and a village in the Razan district (baḵš) of Hamadān province.

• DARKE, Hubert Seymour Garland

  John Perry

  (b. London, 8 May 1919, d. Cambridge, 6 February 1998), teacher and scholar of Persian, Lecturer in Persian at Cambridge University ‘s Faculty of Oriental Studies from 1961 to 1982.

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• DARMESTETER, JAMES

  Mary Boyce and D. N. MacKenzie

  (b. Château-Salins, Alsace, 12 March 1849, d. Paris, 19 October 1894), the great Iranist, was the son of a Jewish bookbinder, who in 1852 moved to Paris to improve his children’s educational opportunities.

• DARRA-YE BARRA

  Remy Boucharlat

  lit. "Valley of the lamb", a locality in Fārs province, 2.5 km east-northeast of the Achaemenid royal tombs at Naqš-e Rostam. Several rock-cut monuments are scattered on steep scree and in the cliff on the north side of the valley. The most outstanding feature is the tallest fire altar so far found in Fārs.

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• DARRA-YE NŪR

  Daniel Balland

  name of a small tributary valley on the right bank of the Konar river in eastern Afghanistan and the corresponding subdistrict of Nangrahār province.

• DARRA-YE ṢŪF

  Daniel Balland

  name of a valley in northern Afghanistan, drained by a tributary of the right bank of the Balḵāb, and of the adjoining mountain district and its administrative center in Samangān province.