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XENOPHON (ca. 430-353 BCE), Greek historian and essayist from Athens, who served among the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger (see CYRUS vi) and then led them back home, a set of events which he described in the Anabasis, one of his major works. Apart from Socratic links and presumed…

i. The name. ii. Xerxes I. iii. Xerxes II.

XERXES, name of two Achaemenid rulers and of some later princes. i. THE NAME Xerxes is the common Greek (Xérxēs) and Latin form (Xerxes, Xerses) of the Achaemenid throne-name which in Old Persian is spelled x-š-y-a-r-š-a (with the initial a- of the second element being spread into medial position) and…

XIONGNU (Hsiung-nu), the great nomadic empire to the north of China in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, which extended to Iranian-speaking Central Asia and perhaps gave rise to the Huns of the Central Asian Iranian sources. Origins. The Xiongnu are known mainly from archaeological data and from chapter 110…

XVADĀHOY, East Syrian monk (7th century CE). According to Dādišoʿ Qaṭrāya, Rabban Xvadāhoy was an “illustrious chief” for monasticism (Draguet, 1972, p. 299 ; tr. p. 231). Three main sources make his life known: the Liber castitatis of Išoʿdenaḥ, bishop of Baṣra (Chabot, 1896, p. 45, no. 78), the Book of Governors of…

XWĒŠKĀRĪH Ī RĒDAGĀN (The duty of children), a Pahlavi manual for Zoroastrian children regarding correct behavior. Xwēškārīh ī rēdagān is a short text of wisdom literature genre (see Andarz and andarz literature in pre-Islamic Iran) and probably post-Sasanian in date. The text, which is only extant in a Pāzand version…

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YAGHNOBI, term used as a noun to refer to a people and as an adjective to designate their language (yaγnobīˊ zivók “Yaghnobi language”). It is derived from the name of the Yaghnob valley and the Yaghnob river, which, according to Khromov (1987, p. 644), is a Tajik adaption of the…

YĀḤAQQI, Ḥosayn (b. Tehran, 1282 Š./1903, d. Tehran, 1347 Š./1968) renowned composer and performer of the violin and the kamānča (spiked fiddle) and instructor of music. His last name ‘Yāhaggi‘ is derived from his catch phrase “Yā Ḥaaq,” a phrase frequently used by dervishes meaning ‘God Almighty’. Ḥosayn was deeply…

YAḴČĀL (lit. “ice pit”) and YAḴDĀN (lit. “ice container”), a building for storing blocks of ice or, very rarely, compressed snow, which are collected in the winter for use in the summer.  Until the early 20th century, yaḵdān was more common than yaḵčāl (see the respective entries in Dehḵoda), and…

YARKAND (Yarkend; Modern Uighur Yärkänd; Chinese Shache, the same characters can also be read as Suoche), a town in Chinese Turkestan, at the southwestern end of the Tarim Basin (38°27′ N, 77°16′ E; alt. 1,190 m). Yārkand is located in a fertile oasis on the banks of the river of…