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ALĀFRANK or ALA-FIRENG, the eldest son of the Il-khan Geiḵatu (r. 690-94/1291-95). His career is shrouded in a good deal of mystery. In December, 1303 a plot was allegedly hatched to overthrow the then reigning Il-khan, Ḡāzān; according to Rašīd-al-dīn, Alāfrank himself was not an active participant. This would seem…

ALAK-DOLAK, the game of tipcat, played for centuries in Iran, Afghanistan, and surrounding countries. Many variations are known; basically, a bat (dolak) is used to strike a wooden peg (alak), which fielders recover and then throw at the dolak placed on the ground. ʿA. A. Ḥekmat suggests that the great…

ALAMŪT, a high, isolated valley in the Alborz thirty-five kilometers northeast of Qazvīn; the center of an autonomous Ismaʿili state, the valley was defended by numerous fortresses, one of which bears the same name (Figure 29). The valley. The valley of Alamūt in Daylam comprises the present dehestāns of Alamūt…

ALANS, an ancient Iranian tribe of the northern (Scythian, Saka, Sarmatian, Massagete) group, known to classical writers from the first centuries A.D. (see, e.g., Seneca, Thyestes 630; Annaeus Lucan, Pharsalia 8.223, 10.454; Lucian, Toxaris 51, 54, 55, 60; Ptolemy, Geographia 6.14.3, 9, 11; and other sources below). Their name appears…

ĀLĀT (plural of Arabic āla), “utensils,” for Parsis the “sacred apparatus” employed in Zoroastrian rituals. Once consecrated, they function to effect contact between this physical (gētīg) realm and the holy, spiritual (mēnōg) realm. Appropriate ālāt are used for each rite. E.g., in the purificatory bath (barašnūm) the ālāt are consecrated…

ALAVI, BOZORG (Bozorg ʿAlavi, b. Tehran, 13 Bahman 1282 Š./2 February 1904; d. Berlin, 28 Bahman 1375 Š./17 February 1997; FIGURE 1, FIGURE 2), leftist writer and one of the most noted Persian novelists of the 20th century, whose works were banned in Iran from 1953 to 1979. Bozorg (registered…

ĀLBĀLŪ (or ĀLŪBĀLŪ), sour cherry (Cerasus vulgaris), a tree of western Asia and eastern Europe. The fruits are light brown or dark red, resembling those of the common cherry. The kernels of the seeds have the odor of bitter almonds; tonic and nutritive, they are used in confections. The dried…

ALBANIA (Iranian Aran, Arm. Ałuankʿ), an ancient country in the Caucasus (for Albania in Islamic times, see Arrān). It was bounded on the north by the Ceraunian mountains, an extension of the Caucasus, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the south by the lower course of the…

ALBORZ (ELBORZ, ELBORS), modern Persian name for the east-west massif in northern Iran, lying south of the Caspian districts. i. The name. ii. In myth and legend. iii. Geography.  

ALBORZ COLLEGE, an American Presbyterian missionary institution in Tehran; starting as a grade school in 1873, it grew to a junior college in 1924 and an accredited liberal arts college by 1928. In 1940 it was closed and its property bought by the government of Iran. At first called the…

ALBORZ i. The Name The more ancient name of the range is not known; perhaps, however, the Assyrian name Bikni designated Mt. Damāvand, the volcanic cone (5,600 m) northeast of Tehran. In the Sasanian period part of the region may have been known by the Middle Persian Padišxwār-gar (F. Spiegel, Erânische Alterthumskunde I, Leipzig, 1871,…

ALBORZ ii. In Myth and Legend The most ancient layer of belief about the mythical “high Harā” appears to be that it was a huge mountain rising in the middle of the world, around whose peak (Av.taēra-, Pahl. tērag) “revolve the stars, moon, and sun” (Yt. 12.25), thus creating night and…

ALBORZ iii. Geography The Alborz mountains form the central part of the northern arc of mountains in Iran, which extend between the mountains of Armenia in the west and those of the Hindu Kush in the east (Figure 30a, Figure 30b). It separates the Aralo-Caspian depression in the north (-26 m)…