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ĒR, ĒR MAZDĒSN (Inscr. Mid. Pers. ēr [ʾyly], plur. ērān [ʾylʾn, ʾyrʾn]), an ethnonym, like Old Persian ariya- and Avestan airya-, meaning “Aryan” or “Iranian.” There are no sufficient reasons to distinguish sing. ēr semantically from plur. ērān, the ethnic reference of which is indisputable. The translation of Middle Persian…

ERĀDA-YEMELLĪ (lit. national will), a pro-British political party founded on 23 Bahman 1322 Š./19 January 1944 by Sayyed Żīāʾ al-Dīn Ṭabāṭabāʾī (1891-1969), a devout anglophile politician and journalist, who had supported the aborted 1919 Anglo-Persian Treaty (q.v.) and coengineered with Brigadier Reżā Khan (later Reżā Shah) the British-supported coup d’état…

ĒRĀN, ĒRĀNŠAHR. The word ērān is first attested in the titles of Ardašīr I (q.v.), founder of the Sasanian dynasty. On his investiture relief at Naqš-e Rostam in Fārs, and subsequently on his coins, he is called ʾrtḥštr MLKʾn MLKʾ ʾyrʾn/Ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān, in Mid. Persian, MLKYN MLKʾ ʾryʾn/šāhān…

ĒRĀN-ĀSĀN-KERD-KAWĀD (Kawād [has] made Ērān peaceful), name of a Sasanian province (šahr) created by Kawād I (r. 488-531). It was possibly the Ḥolwān region; if so, it bordered the provinces of Šahrazūr (Syārazūr) and Garmegan.   Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”): Ph. Gignoux and…

ĒRĀN-ŠĀD-KAWĀD, name of a Sasanian town occurring in post-Sasanian sources only. Ḥamza Eṣfahānī situated this Sasanian foundation between Ḥolwān and Šahrazūr.   Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”): R. Gyselen, La géographie administrative de l’Empire sassanide: Les témoignages sigillographiques, Res Orientales 1, Bures-sur-Yvette, 1989, p….

ĒRĀN-WĒZ, the Middle Persian designation of the territory of the Aryans. It is the development of an OIr. *aryānām waiǰah (cf. the similar Man. Sogd. and probably Parth. ʾryʾnwyjn, i.e., Aryānwēžan; Henning, pp. 55, 73). Differing only in the use of the genitive plural ‘of the Aryans’ for the adjective…

ĒRĀN-WIN(N)ĀRD-KAWĀD (Kawād[has] arranged Ērān), name of a Sasanian province (šahrestān) created by Kawād I (r. 488-531) in his reorganisation of the empire. Ḥamza Eṣfahānī called it Īrān waṭāraṭ Kawād and mentioned that it contained rostāqs belonging to Qom (Ḥamza, pp. 25, 38).   Bibliography (for cited works not given in…

ĒRĀN-XWARRAH-ŠĀBUHR (Ērān, glory of Šāpūr), Sasanian province (šahrestān) containing Susa and probably created by Šāpūr II (r. 309-379). Though Susa was given the epithet ēr-kar “made Iranian,” the capital of the province was actually Karḵa, renamed Ērān-xwarrah-Šābūhr-šahrestān for the occasion. The toponym was often deformed in the post-Sasanian period (see…

ĒRĀN-XWARRAH-YAZDGERD (Ērān, glory of Yazdegerd), Sasanian province probably created by Yazdegerd II (438-457). The city cannot be identified with any certainty, but it is likely that it was located in the north of the Sasanian province of Gorgān.  

ERDMANN, KURT, leading historian of Sasanian and Islamic art (b. 9 September 1901 in Hamburg, d. 30 September 1964 in Berlin). Erdmann’s career and numerous publications were closely connected to the Islamic Department of the Berlin State Museums, of which he was director from 1958 until his death. He also…

EREKLEII, king of Kakheti, 1744-62, and king of Kartli-Kakheti in Caucasus, 1762-98 (b. 1720, or, according to Toumanoff, 7 October 1721, d. 11 January 1798). In Persian sources Erekle is referred to as Ereklī Khan, wālī of Georgia, since the shahs considered him a vassal. Erekle spent his early years…

EREVAN, ancient city and modern capital of the Republic of Armenia (40° 08´ N, 44° 10´ E). i. Ancient and medieval. ii. The Persian Khanate. iii. The modern city.     i. ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL Erevan is located on a site that has been occupied for millennia. Today it is…