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RASHT (Rašt), city and district in the providence of Gilān. i. The City Located at lat 37°17′ N, long 49°35′ E, with an average elevation of 5 m, Rasht is the capital of Gilān and the largest city along the Caspian coast of Iran. Nestled between the Zarjub and Gowhar-rud…

RASHT ii. The District The district (šahrestān) of Rasht, 1,224 km², is the largest in the plain of Gilān and the most populated in the whole province. Its population was 857,519, constituting 35.8 percent of the province, according to the 2006 census (see Markaz), and included, besides the 557,366 inhabitants…

RAŠN, Avestan Rašnu, the deity of the ancient Iranian pantheon who functions as the divine Judge. The word rašnu- is a primary derivative in -nu- (see Wackernagel/Debrunner, §575) of the verb raz- (OInd. √raj-, IE * √h3reg -) “to move in a straight line; to direct.” It occurs both as…

RAŠN YAŠT, the Middle Persian title given to the twelfth Yašt of the Avesta. It is dedicated to the Zoroastrian deity Rašnu (MP. Rašn, Skt. Satyapati-).  RAŠNU  The Avestan proper noun Rašnu ultimately derives from the PIE root *h3reĝ “to direct, make straight” (see Rix, 304, s.v. *h3reĝ-) together with…

RASSEKH, MEHRI, née Arjomand (b. Tehran, 6 October 1922; d. Geneva, 15 November 2008; Figure 1), a leading research scholar in the field of psychology and education, professor of psychology at the University of Tehran. Mehri Rassekh was born into a prominent and well-educated Bahāʾi family. Her maternal grandmother, Monireh…

RASTḴIZ (Resurrection): With the outbreak of the First World War, a group of Iranian expatriates in Europe, headed by Sayyed Ḥasan Taqizāda, formed the Iranian Nationalists Committee (Komita-ye melliun-e Irāni) in Berlin in opposition to the Anglo-Russian domination of Iran. The strongly pro–German Committee established regular contacts with Iranian activists…

RASULID HEXAGLOT, a six-language glossary compiled by or prepared for the sixth Rasulid king of Yemen, al-Malek al-Afżal al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAli b. Dāʾud b. Yusof b. ʿOmar b. ʿAli Derḡam-al-Din (r. 1363-77). It is a collection of vocabularies, listing forms in Arabic with matching entries in Persian, Turkic (Turki, in…

RATHINES (Gk. Rathínēs), a general of Pharnabazos, the satrap of the Daskylitis (see DASCYLIUM) under Dareios II and Artaxerxes II (see DARIUS iv and ARTAXERXES II). Rathines and Spithridates (for whom, see MEGABATES, no. 4; RE IIIA2, 1929, cols. 1815-16) were sent out by Pharnabazos with a large force of…

RĀVANDI, Qoṭb-al-Din Saʿid, Imami author, traditionist, and jurist (d. Qom, 14 Šawwāl 573/5 April 1178; his birthday is not known). His full name is Abu’l-Ḥosayn Saʿid (or Saʿd) b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ḥosayn b. Hebat-Allāh b. Ḥasan b. ʿIsā, often abbreviated to Saʿid b. Hebat-Allāh. He belonged to a scholarly family…

RAWAK VIHARA, a ruined Buddhist stupa (a reliquary representing the passing, or nirvana, of the Buddha) and monastery complex located about 40 km northeast of Hotan/Hetian (see KHOTAN), in Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Province, western China. Rawak means “high building” or “steep house” in Uyghur, and vihara is the Sanskrit…

RAWLINSON, HENRY ii. Contributions to Assyriology and Iranian Studies Rawlinson’s fascination with cuneiform (see CUNEIFORM SCRIPT) began shortly after he was posted to the Near East. His first relevant activity was to copy the trilingual inscriptions of Darius I (r. 522-486 BCE) and Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BCE) at Mount Alvand (Elvend)…

RAWWADIDS (Ar. Rawwādiya, Rawādiya), a family of Arab descent that controlled Tabriz and north-eastern Azerbaijan in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Their Kurdicized descendants ruled over Azerbaijan and parts of Armenia in the second half of the 10th and much of the 11th century. There is some uncertainty…

RAWŻA-YE TASLIM, title of the most comprehensive work on the Nezāri Ismaʿili theology of the Alamut  period by Naṣir-al-Din Ṭusi (597-672/1201-74), the celebrated polymath who also served as vizier under the Il-khanid Hülegü (r. 1256-65). During his long and fruitful stay at the Nezāri Ismaʿili strongholds of northern Iran (624-54/1227-56),…

RAY i. ARCHEOLOGY The first Western accounts of Ray (Rayy) were produced by British travelers such as Sir James Morier (pp. 231, 403) and Sir William Ouseley (pp. 174-99), who visited Ray between the 1810s and 1830s. These descriptions of the city were not informed by an archeological approach, but…

RĀŻIA ĀZĀD (Roziya Ozod in Tajik orthography; 1893-1957), Tajik poet and educator. Born into a family of craftsmen in Khujand, Rāżia Āzād received her early education at the traditional schools in her hometown. In the early 1910s, she opened a primary school in the village of Esfesār (Isfisor; in present-day…