Explore Iranica

AHVĀZ ii. The Modern City Ahvāz was in the 19th century no more than a small borough inhabited by Šaʿb Arabs and a few Sabeans (1,500 to 2,000 inhabitants according to Ainsworth in 1835; 700 according to Curzon in 1890). Some modest cultivation was carried on; all traces of sugarcane…

AHVĀZ iii. Monuments Little of architectural interest appears to have survived from the medieval period. On the left or east bank of the Kārūn river, in the old part of the present city, is the tomb of ʿAlī b. Mehryār, a contemporary of Abū Nowās and a follower of Imam…

AHVAZ iv. Population, 1956-2011 This article deals with the following population characteristics of Ahvaz (اهواز): 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 are determined by the availability of census data)….

AHVĀZĪ, a 4th/10th century mathematician. He was a contemporary of Abū Jaʿfar Ḵāzen (fl. ca. 950-970), whom he mentions. There is no convincing reason to accept his identification by Suter and Sezgin with Abu’l-Ḥosayn Aḥmad b. Ḥosayn Ahvāzī Kāteb who is mentioned by Bīrūnī (Āṯār al-bāqīa, pp. 289, 293; Chronology,…

ĀʾĪN GOŠASP (var. Aḏīn Gošnasp, Aḏīn Jošnas), general of Hormazd IV (A.D. 579-590), sent by him to campaign against the rebellious general Bahrām Čūbīn. Unsuccessful, he was murdered in Hamadān (Ṭabarī, II, p. 995; Yaʿqūbī, Taʾrīḵ, Naǰaf, 1358/1939, I, p. 136; Šāh-nāma [Moscow] VIII, pp. 394, 428). He was probably…

ĀʾĪN-NĀMA, Arabic and New Persian form of Middle Persian ēwēn nāmag (“book of manners”), a general term for texts dealing with the exposition of manners, customs, skills, and arts and sciences. Cf. Masʿūdī’s equivalent, ketāb al-rosūm (Tanbīh, p. 104). The term might apply to texts of diverse subject matter. E.g.,…

ĀʾĪNA-KĀRĪ, the practice of covering an architectural surface with a mosaic of mirror-glass. It is often dismissed as a gaudy and decadent kind of Persian architectural decoration, and there is no study of its forms and techniques, or survey of buildings decorated with it (or formerly so decorated, for many…

ĀʾĪNA-YE ḠAYBNOMĀ “The Revealing Mirror,” a fortnightly illustrated magazine which began publication in Tehran on 22 Jomādā I 1325/3 July 1907, edited by Sayyed ʿAbd-al-Raḥīm Kāšānī. It was suppressed after the Maǰles bombardment of June, 1908, but reappeared in Raǰab, 1329/July, 1911.

AIRYAMAN, an ancient Iranian divinity and a yazata of the Zoroastrian pantheon, known in Manichean Middle Persian as Aryaman, in Pahlavi as Ērmān. The Avestan common noun airyaman-, Vedic aryaman-, means “friend, companion;” and the Indo-Iranian Aryaman was, it seems, the hypostasis of friendship, and of friendly alliance; and this…

AIRYAMAN IŠYA, Gathic Avestan prayer (named from its opening words, ā airyəmā išyō) of Y. 54.1. etc. It may originally have been intended to summon a hypostasis of the power of the tribe (airyaman) to safeguard the Zarathushtrian community. It may be translated: “May the desirable Airyaman come for protection…

AIWYǠŊHANA, Avestan term “wrapping round, girdle” (from the root yāh, OInd. yās “to put on, wrap,” AirWb., col. 948); it designates a strip from a date-palm leaf which is consecrated in the Yasna liturgy and used to tie the bundle of wires which constitute the barsom (Av. barəsman), originally a…

ĀJĪ ČĀY (Talḵa-rūd, “Bitter river”), a river some 200 km in length which rises on the western flank of Kūh-e Sabalān near Sarāb and flows into Lake Urmia (Reżāʾīya) near the town of Gogān. In its upper and middle reaches, east of Tabrīz, numerous small tributaries from Qowšādāḡ to the…

ĀJĪL, an assortment of nuts (pistachios, almonds, and hazelnuts being the most common), roasted chickpeas and seeds such as watermelon, pumpkin, and pear (aṇčūčak), and raisins and other dried fruits such as apricots, sour cherries, mulberries, and figs. The roasted nuts and seeds may simply be salted, or they may…