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ĀYENAHĀ-YE DARDĀR (Mirrors with cover doors, Tehran, 1992), one of the last major works by Hushang Golshiri (see GOLŠIRI, HUŠANG) renowned novelist and literary critic. Āyenahā-ye dardār resembles a travelogue. It begins with the narrator’s arrival in London airport and ends, after visiting several European countries, with his return flight…

AYMĀQ (Turk. OYMAQ), a term designating tribal peoples in Khorasan and Afghanistan, mostly semi-nomadic or semi-sedentary, in contrast to the fully sedentary, non-tribal population of the area. The local dialects of the Aymāq are very close either to the Fārsī of east Khorasan province or to the Herātī idiom of…

AYNALLŪ (or ĪNALLŪ, ĪNĀLŪ, ĪMĀNLŪ), a tribe of Ḡozz Turkic origin inhabiting Azerbaijan, central Iran and Fārs. The name of this tribe, Minorsky believed, was derived from the Turkic title īnāl, or yenāl. He suggested that the original Aynallūs might have constituted the family and retinue of Ebrāhīm Yenāl, the…

AYŌKĒN, a Middle Persian legal term denoting the category of persons to whom descends the obligation of stūrīh (marriage by proxy or substitution; q.v.). The term is from the beginning words of the Avestan technical phrase yō hē pasčaēta “he to whom afterwards” (i.e., after the passing of a man…

AYRARAT, region of central Armenia in the broad plain of the upper Araxes (q.v.); the name is undoubtedly connected with the Assyrian Urautri, later Urartu, the biblical Ararat (Genesis 12:20, Jeremiah 15:13), and with the people called Alarodioi by Herodotus (3.94) in the fifth century B.C. The name Ayrarat is…

ĀYRĪMLŪ (in Persian often Āyromlū), Turkic tribe of western Azerbaijan. Following the treaty of Torkamāṇčāy (q.v.) in 1243/1828 through which Iran lost the provinces of Īravān (Erevan) and Naḵjavān, ʿAbbās Mīrzā, the crown prince, who valued the fighting ability of Turkic tribesmen, encouraged several Turkic tribes which dwelled in the…

ĀYROM, MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN KHAN, army commander and the head of the police under Reżā Shah (r. 1304-20 Š./1925-41). A native of the Caucasus (see Āyrīmlū) he joined the Cossack division where he became an associate of Reżā Khan. As an officer and a Russian translator he rose to the rank of…

AYVĀN (palace, veranda, balcony, portico), a Persian word used also in Arabic (īwān, līwān) and Turkish. In classical Persian or Arabic texts, ayvān refers most of the time to a palatial function, either a whole palace or the most important and formal part of a palace. By extension, it can…

AYVĀN (or ṬĀQ)-E KESRĀ (the Palace of Ḵosrow), the most famous of all Sasanian monuments and a landmark in the history of architecture, now only an imposing brick ruin. While actually belonging to the city of Asbānbar on the east bank of the Tigris below Baghdad, the Ayvān-e Kesrā (also…

AYYOHA’L-WALAD, a short treatise by Abū Ḥāmed Moḥammad Ḡazālī Ṭūsī (fl. 450-505/1058-1111), originally composed in Persian, but, except for one line of Persian poetry, only its Arabic translation is extant. It was written sometime after his Eḥyāʾ ʿolūm al-dīn to which it makes many references. The introduction, written by a…

Search terms:  ایوب خان، محمد aub khan, mohammad   ayub khaan, mohammad aub khan, mohamad  

AYYUBIDS (Ar. Banū Ayyūb), a Kurdish family who first became prominent as members of the Zangid military establishment in Syria in the mid-sixth/twelfth century. Seizing power in Egypt in 564/1168, they were soon able to extend their dominion to the Yemen, Syria, and much of the Jazīra. However, they lost…

ĀZ, Iranian demon known from Zoroastrian, Zurvanite, and, especially, Manichean sources. Avestan Āzi- (not in the Gāθās) derives from the root āz- “Strive for, endeavor to” (used in bonam partem). New Persian continues Mid. Ir. āz but without mythological significance, apart from the conception of Āz as demon of death…

ĀZĀD, Zelkova crenata or Siberian elm, a tree of the Ulmaceae family, for which also other scientific names, such as Zelkova carpinifolia, Zelkova hyrcana, Planera crenata, and Planera Richardi, have been proposed. It is one of the most typical trees of the hyrcanian forest and is found, always mixed with…

ĀZĀD (older ĀZĀT), a class of the Iranian nobility. The word (Mid Pers. ʾzʾt, ʾcʾt, plur. obl. ʾzʾtʾn, ʾcʾtʾn, Parth. ʾzʾt, plur. obl. ʾzʾtn) literally means “free,” and by extension also “noble.” i. In ancient Iran. ii. Armenian azat.   i. In Ancient Iran The division of the Iranian society…