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HUVIŠKA, ruler of the Great Kushan lineage, successor of Kaniška I the Great, known chiefly from inscriptions, and from a prolific coinage, who reigned from at least the year 28 to 60 of the Kaniška Era, equivalent to 154-86 C.E. The first date derives from the Chaurasi Jaina temple Brāhmī…

HUZWĀREŠ, a term describing the use of Semitic word masks in Middle Persian texts, written in the official orthography of the Sasanian state and surviving in Zoroastrian texts (in manuscripts) and a small number of inscriptions (on rocks) and letters (on papyrus). The only other surviving text written in this…

HYDARNES (Gk. Hydárnēs), a rendering of the Old Persian male name Vidṛna (spelled vi-i-d-r-n), which is reflected also in Elamite Mi-tar-na, Mi-tur-na, Babylonian Ú-mi-da-ar-na-ʾ, Ú-(ʾ-)da-ar-na-ʾ, Lycian Widrñna-, Greek Idérnēs, Idárnēs, Latin Idarnes, and, possibly, Aramaic Wdrn. The etymological interpretation is far from clear, since the morphological analysis (as vi-dṛna-, vid-ṛna-,…

HYDE,  THOMAS, D.D., English orientalist, Professor of Arabic and Hebrew in the University of Oxford, who was the first scholar to attempt to write a comprehensive description of the religion of Zoroaster (1636-1703). His works are well known, but there is no full, modern biographical study, in the absence of…

HYDERABAD (Ḥaydarābād), city in the Deccan of India, situated 17°22’ N, 78°27’ E, the former capital of the Nizams (Neẓāms) of Hyderabad (ca. 1724-1948) and at present the state capital of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Hyderabad from the time of its foundation in 999/1591 until Indian independence in 1947…

HYDROLOGY. i. Iranian plateau. See ĀB. ii. Southwestern Persia. iii. Afghanistan. i. IRANIAN PLATEAU. See ĀB.   ii. SOUTHWESTERN PERSIA From a hydrological perspective, southwestern Persia must be considered as part of the Persian Gulf drainage region (see DRAINAGE). Extending over an area of more than 350,000 km², its main…

HYENA, Hyaena hyaena (Linnaeus, 1758; Figure 1), Pers. kaftār. The striped hyena is the only current Asian representative of the mammalian family Hyaenidae. It is a medium-sized carnivore with a relatively large head and with the forequarters heavier than the hindquarters; the legs are long, with four digits on each…

Hymn of Fozieh title Hymn of Fozieh genre/topic Sorud language   performer Manučehr Ṣahbābi instrument Piano composer  Minbāšiān, Ḡolām-Ḥoseyn author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 3:42 source Old Iranian Hymns. Mahoor Institute of Culture and Art, 2010…

HYMN OF THE PEARL, or Hymn of the Soul, a Syriac poem, of which an early Greek translation also exists, composed probably in the third century C.E. in the region of Edessa (q.v.; modern Urfa, in southeastern Turkey), in an environment strongly influenced by the Parthians. The text (see Poirier,…

HYPERBOLE, a figure (or figures) of speech in the classical Persian system of ʿelm al-badiʿ (see BADIʿ). Hyperbole is known chiefly by the term eḡrāq “surpassing the measure,” as a trope or rhetorical figure, and, in a wider sense, by that of mobālaḡa “exaggeration,” as a mode of expression. The…

HYSTASPES, ORACLES OF (Gk. Khrēseis Hystaspou), a collection of prophecies ascribed to Vištāspa, the patron and follower of Zarathustra, whom the Middle Iranian and part of the ancient tradition also identified with Darius’s father (J. Bidez and F. Cumont, I, p. 215, n. 3). The text of the work is…