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YĀSĀ (Turkish yasaq; Mongolian jasagh “law, decree, order”), a term used of individual edicts issued by Čengiz Khan and his successors and sometimes of the entire body of such edicts; it is frequently used in the secondary literature to designate a supposed written code, the “Great Yāsā.” Such a code was…

YĀSĀWUR (YASA’UR), a Mongol prince belonging to the Chaghatayid dynasty.  He was a grandson of Buqa Timur (Buqa Temür) (Tāriḵ-e Waṣṣāf, pp. 509, 613; Kāšāni, p. 36; Moʿezz al-ansāb, fol. 31a), who had briefly reigned as khan of Čaḡatai’s ulus in the 1270s.  His mother was a daughter of a…

YASNA, the name for the central ritual in Zoroastrianism and for the long liturgical text recited during the daily performance of the ritual. In this article, Yasna (abbrev. Y.) will designate the text, yasna the ritual itself. As described elsewhere (see SACRIFICE. IN ZOROASTRIANISM), the yasna-ritual is rooted in ancient…

YAŠTS, the group of 21 Avestan hymns in praise of various deities of the Zoroastrian pantheon. They form an important and integral part of the sacred texts of the Zoroastrians collected in the Avesta. In principle, each Yašt (abbreviated Yt.) is entirely devoted to the praise of one particular deity…

YAZD iv. THE JEWISH DIALECT OF YAZD The name “Judeo-Yazdi” is applied to a Central dialect spoken by some Jews of Yazd. The Jewish community of Yazd is one of the oldest in Persia. Although it had never been large, it was divided into two neighborhoods, referred to as ma:le…

YAZDEGERD I, Sasanian king of kings (r. 399-420) called “the Sinner.” The name “Yazdegerd” was borne by three Sasanian kings of kings and a number of notables of the Sasanian and later periods. It is a compound of Yazad Yazata- ‘divine being’ and -karta ‘made’, and signifies ‘God-made’, similar to…

YAZDEGERD II (r. 439-57 CE), Sasanian king, whose reign is marked by wars with Byzantium in the west and the Hephthalites in the east.  He stayed in the east for some years fighting the nomadic tribes and is known for imposing Zoroastrianism in Armenia. Yazdgerd II was the son and successor…

YAZICI, Tahsin (b. Hoğas, 1338/1922; d. Istanbul, 20 November 2002), Turkish scholar of Persian language, literature, and culture (FIGURE 1). He was born in Hoğas, a village near the town of Kiğı in the province of Bingöl, into the Yazıcızādeler,a family of Turkish origin, which had been sent there as…

YAZIDIS, a heterodox Kurdish religious minority living predominantly in northern Iraq, Syria, and southeast Turkey, with well-established communities in the Caucasus and a growing European diaspora. Anecdotal evidence of the existence of Yazidi groups in northwestern Persia has not yet been proven. There are probably some 200,000-300,000 Yazidis worldwide. i….

YAZIDIS ii. Initiation in Yazidism Three different rites can mark the initiation of a Yazidi child as a member of the community: (1) the cutting of a baby boy’s first locks (bisk); (2) mor kirin, lit. “to stamp, seal,” and (3) for boys, circumcision (see also Wensinck; in Kurdish sunnet,…

YAʿQUB b. LAYṮ b. MOʿADDAL (r. 247-65/861-79), founder of what may be distinguished as the Laythids, or the “first line” within the Saffarid dynasty, who built up a powerful military empire in the eastern regions of the Islamic world centered on Sistān, The rise to power of Yaʿqub and his…

YEKI BUD, YEKI NABUD (Berlin, 1921, tr. by Mansur Heshmat Moyyad and Paul Sprachman as Once Upon a Time, New York, 1985), the first collection of modern Persian short stories, and, arguably the foremost work by the eminent fiction writer Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh (Moḥammad ʿAli Jamālzāda, also Djamalzadeh, 1892-1997) The…

YEŊ́HĒ HĀTĄM, Yasna 27.15 of the Avesta, one of the four major Zoroastrian ritual prayers or mantras (Av. mąθra). In the extant Avesta, the commentary on Yeŋhē hātąm (hereafter: YH) survives in Yasna 21, which immediately precedes the Gāthās. Y. 21 follows the lengthier exposition of the Yaθā ahū vairiiō …

YOHANNAN, ABRAHAM (1853-1925; Figure 1), Assyrian scholar, philologist, historian, and humanitarian advocate. He was the first “Oriental” to teach Oriental languages at Columbia University. Education and early career. Abraham Yohannan (b. 25 April 1853; d. 9 November 1925) was born in Ābājāluy near Urmia (Āḏarbāyjān-e Ḡarbi province, Iran; Razmārā, p….