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AFRĀSĪĀB (Av. Fraŋrasyan; Mid. Pers. Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk, Frangrāsyāk, etc.; Ṭabarī: Farāsīāt; Dīnawarī, Masʿūdī, Bīrūnī: Farāsīāb; Ṯaʿālebī, Ferdowsī: Afrāsīāb; Pazand: Frāsyāvak, Frāsyāvan), Turanian king and hero and Iran’s archenemy in its legendary history. By far the most prominent of Turanian kings, Afrāsīāb is depicted in Iranian tradition as a formidable warrior…

AFRĀSĪĀB i. The Archeological Site Afrāsīāb is the ruined site of ancient and medieval Samarqand in the northern part of the modern town. The term Qaḷʿa-ye Afrāsīāb appears in written sources only from the end of the 17th century. The name is popularly connected with that of the epic king…

AFRĀSIĀB ii. WALL PAINTINGS The Afrāsiāb wall paintings refer to 7th-century Sogdian murals, discovered in 1965 in the residential part of ancient Samarqand (Samarkand), the most famous cycle of which was found in the so-called “Hall of the Ambassadors.” History of discovery. The importance of Afrāsiāb as an archaeological site…

AFRĀŠTA, MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ (1287-1338 Š./1908-59), poet, writer and satirist. Like his father Jawād, he was a native of Rašt, while his mother was from a peasant family of Gīlān, a fact which explains his wide knowledge of the customs, manners, and language of the Gīlakī peasants. Before finishing school, he was…

ĀFRĪD, 5th century A.D. Christian bishop of the province of Sagastān (i.e., Sīstān). Āfrīd is a proper name, also occurring in compounds (e.g., Burzāfrīd, Hormizāfrīd), from Avestan āfrī/ĭti- “blessing,” the name of one of the minor yazatas (Air Wb., col. 330), according to the Syriac Synodicon Orientale (ed. J. B….

AFRĪDĪ or APRĪDĪ (singular -ay), designation of a major Paṧtūn tribe in northwest Pakistan, with a few members in Afghanistan. The Afrīdī form part of the Ḡilzī and are thus of the so-called “eastern Paṧtūn,” who are to be distinguished from the Dorrānī (or Abdālī) encompassing the “western Paṧtūn.” Their…

ĀFRĪN “blessing,” benedictory prayers said at the conclusion of every Zoroastrian ceremony of blessings (āfrinagān). The purpose of these prayers is to invoke the blessings of the yazads (benign spirits), Amahraspands (seven Bounteous Immortals), and frōhars (guardian spirits) of the departed worthies of ancient Iran. The intended recipients of these…

ĀFRĪNAGĀN, a term for one of the outer Zoroastrian liturgical services and for the specific Avestan prayers which accompany it. The word is derived from OIr. ā-fri- and invites comparison with Sanskrit āpri-, a class of prayers expressing an invitation to divinities to partake of the sacrifice (see M. Haug,…

AFŠĀN (“sprinkling”), the decoration of paper with flecks of gold and silver, sometimes called zarafšān “gold sprinkling” (an expression otherwise used to describe the scattering of gold coins as a gesture of largesse). Textual sources on the technique’s origin and development are scanty but can be supplemented by evidence from…

AFŠĀR, one of the twenty-four original Ḡuz Turkic tribes (T. Houtsma, “Die Ghuzenstämme,” WZKM 2, 1888, pp. 223-24). Now widely scattered in Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan, the Afšārs were first mentioned by Kāšḡarī (Divanü lûğat-it Türk, Ankara, 1939-41, I, p. 56). According to Rašīd-al-dīn, Afšār, the eponymous founder of the…