Table of Contents

  • KAVIR

    Cross-Reference

    Persian word meaning "desert." See DESERT.

  • KĀVUS

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAWĀD I

    Nikolaus Schindel

    Sasanian king, son of Pērōz I. This entry is divided into two sections:  i. Reign. ii. Coinage.

  • KAWĀD I i. Reign

    Nikolaus Schindel

    The reign of Kawād I, lasting with an interruption of some three years from 488 to 531, is a turning point in Sasanian history.

  • KAWĀD I ii. Coinage

    Nikolaus Schindel

    Since the reign of Jāmāsp interrupts the two regnal periods of Kawād I, and because of marked differences between the two, they should be treated separately. Kawād employs only one obverse and one reverse type during his first reign. The obverse shows the king’s bust to the right wearing a crown consisting of a crescent and two mural elements. 

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  • KAWĀD II

    Cross-Reference

    Sasanian king (r. 628), son of  ḴOSROW II.   See ŠIRUYA (entry pending).

  • ḴAWARNAQ

    Renate Würsch

    a medieval castle built in the vicinity of the ancient city of al-Ḥira by Laḵmid rulers of Iraq to whose name frequent references has been made in pre-modern Persian literary works.

  • KAY

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAY KĀVUS

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAY ḴOSROW

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • KAY-ḴOSROW KHAN

    Hirotake Maeda

    (1674-1711), Georgian royal prince of the Kartlian branch, also known as Ḵosrow Khan.

  • KAY QOBĀD

    Cross-reference

    See KAYĀNIĀN.

  • ḴAYĀL, Mir Moḥammad-Taqi

    Mohammad Sohayb Arshad

    (d. 1759), Indian author of a collection of historical and fictitious stories composed in Persian in fifteen volumes over fourteen years and titled Bustān-e ḵayāl.

  • KAYĀNIĀN

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    (Kayanids), in the early Persian epic tradition a dynasty that ruled Iran before the Achaemenids, all of whom bore names prefixed by Kay from Avestan kauui.

  • KAYĀNIĀN i. Kavi: Avestan kauui, Pahlavi kay

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    Kavi is the Indo-Iranian term for “(visionary) poet.”  The term may be older than Indo-Iranian, if Lydian kaveś and the Samothracean title cited by Hesychius as koíēs or kóēs are related.

  • KAYĀNIĀN ii. The Kayanids as a Group

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    References to the kauuis in the Avesta are found in the yašts in the lists of heroes who sacrificed to various deities for certain rewards.

  • KAYĀNIĀN iii. Kauui Kauuāta, Kay Kawād, Kay Kobād (Qobād)

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    Kauui Kauuāta has no epithets in the Avesta to describe him, and the descriptions in the Pahlavi sources are mostly vague. His seed is from the xwarrah; he was the first to establish kingship in Iran; he was godfearing and a good ruler. According to a notice in the Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, he may have married Wan, daughter of Gulaxš.

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  • KAYĀNIĀN iv. “Minor” Kayanids

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    The Avesta contains no information on Aipi.vahu, Aršan, Pisinah, and Biiaršan, but, according to the Pahlavi tradition, Abīweh was the son of Kawād and the father of Arš, Biyarš (spelled <byʾlš>), Pisīn, and Kāyus.

  • KAYĀNIĀN v. Kauui Usan, Kay-Us, Kay Kāvus

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    The story of Kay Us’s madness is found in two versions. According to the Bundahišn, his mind was disturbed so that he tried to go up and do battle with the sky, but he fell down and the xwarrah was stolen from him; he devastated the world with his army, until they caught and bound him by deception in the land of Šambarān.

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  • KAYĀNIĀN vi. Siiāuuaršan, Siyāwaxš, Siāvaš

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    Siiāuuaršan, “the one with black stallions,” is listed in the Avesta in Yašt 13.132 as a kauui and the third with a name containing aršan “male.”