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OXYARTES, Persian masculine name, attested only in this Greek form Oxyártēs, which in all probability is transformed by popular etymology (just like Oxyáthrēs [see OXYATHRES]) from OIr. *Huxšaθra- (Oxáthrēs) ‘Of good reign’ (cf. M. Mayrhofer, Iranisches Personennamenbuch I/1, Vienna, 1977, p. 87 no. 335). A connection with the Avestan name…

OXYATHRES, Persian masculine name, attested only in this Greek form Oxyáthrēs, which in all probability is transformed by popular etymology (just as Oxyártēs) from OIr. *Huxšaθra- [rendered as Gk. Oxáthrēs, which can only be interpreted out of Iranian material] ‘Of good reign’ (see Justi, Namenbuch, p. 233a, and, more recently,…

OZAI-DURRANI, ATAULLAH K., the Afghan inventor and developer of fast-cooking rice, marketed under the name “Minute Rice,” who left more than half of his one million dollar estate for the translation and study of the works of the19th-century poets, Ḡāleb (d. 1869) and Mir Taqi Mir (d. 1810). He died…

ÖZGÄND (or Özkänd; Persian and Arabic: Uzkand), in the Middle Ages, a thriving city on the eastern edge of the Ferghana basin, and administrative center of that region in the Qarluq period. Özgänd lay on the “river of Özgänd” (now the Qara Ṣu), one of the tributaries of the Jaxartes;…

O ENTRIES: CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS   online entry caption text OIL INDUSTRY i. Petroleum and its products Figure 1. Structural trap and Stratigraphic trap. (Link, 1983, pp 193-94) OIL INDUSTRY i. Petroleum and its products Figure 2. Combination stratigraphic/structural trap. (Link, 1983, pp 193-94) OIL INDUSTRY i. Petroleum and its…

PADERY, Etienne (b. Athens, ca. 1674), Ottoman Greek who served as a translator to the French embassy at Istanbul, and as a French consul at Shiraz. The “Compte au Roy par le Chevalier Paderi parti pour la Perse par ordre de sa Majesté en l’année 1719 et de retour en…

PĀD[E]ŠĀH ḴĀTUN, (پادشاه خاتون) ṢAFWAT-AL-DONYĀ WA’L-DIN, Qara Ḵetāy (b. 654/1256; d. Šaʿbān, 694/June 1295), ruler of Kerman (691-94/1292-95), the youngest daughter of Qoṭb-al-Din Moḥammad and Qotloḡ Tarkān Ḵātun (Nāṣer-al-Din Monši p. 35; Ḵˇāndamir, III, p. 270).  After her father’s death in 655/1257, she grew up under the tutelage of her…

PĀDYĀB, a sacred ablution requiring washing by water, a necessary prelude to the basic Zoroastrian purificatory ritual. Pādyāb, a Pahlavi word meaning “ritually clean,” is now primarily used in the sense of a ceremonial ablution.The word can be derived from Avesta āp- “water” with adverbial prefix paiti- “against” (AirWb, cols….

PAHLAVI PAPYRI, documents written exclusively in Egypt during the Persian (Sasanian) occupation under Ḵosrow II between 619 and 629 CE. A number of parchments (ca. 20 percent of all) and linen fragments (P. 144, Berlin collection, and frag. 7 of the Bodleiana, Oxford, unpublished) also belong to the material coming…

PAHLAVI PSALTER, name given to a fragment, consisting of twelve pages written on both sides, of a Mid. Pers. translation of the Syriac Psalter. It was discovered, with a mass of other documents, at Bulayiq, near Turfan, in eastern Turkistan (present-day Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of…

PAIRIKĀ, feminine, non-Gathic Avestan noun denoting a class of female demonic beings in the Avesta and often translated “sorceress, witch, or enchantress.”   We shall deal with the Avestan term pairikā- (I.-E. *parikehₐ-, OPers. *parikā-, MPers. parīg, Sogh. prʾykh, Manich. MPers. parīg, Khot. palīkā-, Pers. parī, Pashto pēraī, Nuristanī pari/bari/barai, Arm….

PALACE ARCHITECTURE. The abundant variety of styles in Iranian domestic architecture conceals a basic functional system that has remained unchanged since the Achaemenid period (see ACHAEMENID DYNASTY) and is preserved in palaces and substantial residences. This tradition can scarcely be revealed by art historical methods. Architecture is not a purely…

PALEOLITHIC AGE IN IRAN. Introduction. The Paleolithic or ‘Old Stone Age’ begins with the first stone tools some 2.5million years ago in Africa (Gowlett 1992, p. 350),and it ends with the Neolithic or ‘New Stone Age,’ essentially at the beginnings of agriculture. The Paleolithic is conventionally divided into Lower, Middle,…

PALM READING (chiromancy or palmistry; Pers. Kaf-bini), a form of physiognomy that deduces personal characteristics from the form of the lines on the subject’s palm.  The Persian term kaf­­-bini is a compound made of the words kaf, “palm,” and bini (from the infinitive didan), “looking into.” In general, it is…