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ĀB-ZŌHR “offering of water,” the Middle Persian form of a Zoroastrian technical term, Av. Ape zaoθra. Currently, the Irani Zoroastrians speak of āb-zōr (Dari, with metathesis, ōw-rūz), while the Parsis use a half-Gujarati expression, zor-melavvi “giving the offering.” Making the offering of water is the culminating rite of the main…

ABAD, Arabic theological term meaning “eternity a parte post” (already in early Muʿtazilite theology); it corresponds to Greek atéleuton. It sometimes also serves as a general term for unlimited time (dahr). Abad and its opposing term, azal (“eternity a parte ante”) represent different aspects of qedam, “eternity.” A suggested derivation…

ĀBĀDA 1. The name of a small town in northern Fārs province, lying to the northeast of the chaîne magistrale of the Zagros at an altitude of 2,011 m/6,200 ft in 52°40 ′ east longitude and 31°11 ′ north latitude. It is on the easterly (formally the winter, now the…

ĀBĀDĀN, island and city in the ostān (province) of Ḵūzestān at the head of the Persian Gulf. i. History. ii. The modern city. iii. Basic population data, 1956-2011.

ĀBĀDĀN  i. History In medieval sources, and up to the present century, the name of the island always occurs in the Arabic form ʿAbbādān; this name has sometimes been derived from ʿabbād “worshiper.” Belāḏorī (d. 279/892), on the other hand, quotes the story that the town was founded by one…

ĀBĀDĀN  ii. The modern city island and city in the ostān (province) of Ḵūzestān is located at the head of the Persian Gulf. At the turn of this century the alluvial island of ʿAbbādān had a few peasant hamlets and a scattering of palm groves along the coast. The city…

ĀBĀDĀN, iii. Basic Population Data, 1956-2011 This article deals with the following population characteristics of Ābādān: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status for 2006 and/or 2011 (different dates for the above categories is due to the availability of census…

ĀBĀDĪ, Persian term meaning “settlement, inhabited space;” it is applied basically to the rural environment, but in colloquial usage it often refers to towns and cities as well. The Persian word derives from Middle Persian āpāt, “developed, thriving, inhabited, cultivated” (see H. S. Nyberg, A Manual of Pahlavi II, Wiesbaden,…

ABĀLIŠ, a Zoroastrian of the 9th century A.D. who apostatized to Islam (hence his epithets in Pahlavi , “accursed” [gizistag/guǰastag] and “heretic” [zandīg]). His original name was Day-Ohrmazd, and he apparently adopted an Arabic one after his conversion. Its precise form is disguised by the ambiguous Pahlavi spelling ʾbʾlš (or…

ĀBĀN, Middle Persian term, “the waters” (Av. āpō). In Indo-Iranian the word for water is grammatically feminine; the element itself was always characterized as female and was represented by a group of goddesses, the Āpas. These evidently represented water apprehended in its diversity, whether as countless waves and droplets or…

ABĀN B. ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. LĀHEQ, called LĀHEQĪ, late 2nd/8th century poet. He was of a Persian family, originally from Fasā, which had settled (probably at an early date) in Baṣra. Abān was born there, and he flourished in the period of the Barmakīs. By his own account, he was of…

ĀBĀN MĀH, the eighth month of the Zoroastrian year, dedicated to the Waters, Ābān. From the 5th to the beginning of the 11th century A.D., as a result of the second Sasanian calendar reform (see Calendar, Zoroastrian), Ābān Māh became the twelfth month of the religious “leaping” (wihēzag) year, with…

ĀBĀN YAŠT, Middle Persian (Pazand) name of the fifth among the Zoroastrian hymns to individual divinities. It is the third longest, with 131 verses (only Farvardīn and Mihr Yašt are longer). Although the name indicates that the hymn is devoted to the Waters (Ābān), the Lady Ardvīsūr (Bānū Ardvīsūr) is…

ĀBĀNDOḴT, character in the prose romance Dārābnāma of Abū Ṭāher Moḥammad b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Mūsā al-Ṭarsūsī (q.v.), a storyteller of the Ghaznavid period. A lengthy tale, which includes a version of the Iranian Alexander romance, the Dārābnāma probably took its present written form in the 6th/12th century. It purports…