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ANCIENT LETTERS, name conventionally applied to a group of Sogdian paper documents; discovered in 1907 by Sir Aurel Stein. They were found in the ruined watchtower T.XII.a (see Figure 1) on the Chinese frontier wall which formerly guarded the route between Tun-huang and Lou-lan. The group consists of five almost…

ANDARĀB or ANDARĀBA (Lit.: ” between the rivers”), the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan, in what was in mediaeval Islamic times the province of Ṭoḵārestān. The valley lies in 35° 47’ north latitude and 68° 49’ east longitude, and falls within the…

ANDARĪMĀN, the name of a number of Turanian heroes in the Šāh-nāma. (1) A companion of Sīāvoš in the game of polo (Šāh-nāma [Moscow] III, p. 86, vs. 1326). (2) A hero who, in the battle of the twelve faces (roḵ), first defeats Gostaham, but with the arrival of Haǰīr abandons…

ANDARŪN, or ANDARŪNĪ (inside), the private quarters of well-to-do houses in contrast to bīrūnī. the public rooms usually reserved for men. Until quite recently, Persian houses of the affluent, landowners, and wealthy merchants were run as two separate spheres of andarūnī and bīrūnī. The andarūn was the preserve of female…

ANDARWĀYWĀZĪG, Middle Persian term for “acrobat, tumbler” (lit. “one who plays in the air”). It occurs in the Pahlavi andarz text Xusraw ī Kawādān ud rēdag-ē, sec. 62 (Pahl. Texts I, p. 32); also mentioned are jugglers and performers with all kinds of props, ranging from weapons to table vessels….

ANDARZ (precept, instruction, advice). i. Andarz and andarz literature in pre-Islamic Iran. ii. Andarz literature in New Persian.   i. ANDARZ AND ANDARZ LITERATURE IN PRE-ISLAMIC IRAN The Middle and New Persian term andarz is most often applied to remarks made by a prominent person, such as a king or a…

ANDARZBAD, Sasanian administrative title meaning “chief advisor” (from Mid. Pers. andarz “advice, counsel”) for a city, e.g., Ardašīr-Ḵᵛarrah or Gōr (seal, R. N. Frye, Sassanian Remains from Qasr-iAbu Nasr, Cambridge, Mass., 1973, p. 63) or for an entire province, e.g., the Sagastān-andarzbad (Arm. Sakstan anderjapet: Pʿawstos Buzand, History 4.45). There…

ANDARZGAR, Mid. Pers. term, “counselor, teacher,” cited as a proper name of the “bishop” of the Mazdakites by the 6th-century Byzantine historian Malalas (in the form “Indarazar”) and by the 8th-9th-century writer Theophanes Confessor (“Indazaros”). The word is rather a title than a name. Comparison of these historians’ accounts with…

ANDEJĀN, town in the medieval Islamic province of Farḡāna, modern Russian Andizhan, in the easternmost part of the Uzbekistan SSR (latitude 40° 43’ north and longitude 72° 25’ east). It lies in the fertile valley of Farḡāna, below the upper reaches of the Jaxartes (Syr Darya). It was apparently of…

ANDIJAN UPRISING. On the night of 9 Muḥarram 1316 / 30 May 1898 (18 May Old Style), a group of about two thousand poorly armed men attacked the 4th and 5th Russian Companies on the outskirts of Andijan (situated today in the Uzbek part of the Ferghana Valley) under the…

ANDĪMEŠK (also ANDĀMEŠ, ANDĀLMEŠK), the name of medieval Dezfūl. Modern Andīmešk is the former village of Ṣāleḥābād, 8 km northwest of Dezfūl. Lying at the foot of the Zagros mountains (altitude 160 m) it owes its recent growth (7,324 inhabitants in 1956, 16,195 in 1966) to its location as the…

ANDḴŪY, a commercial town in northwestern Afghanistan (35°56’ north latitude and 65°08’ east longitude). It lies 330 m above sea level on the Andḵūy river, at the southern edge of the Qara Qūm desert and 30 km from the Āmū Daryā (Oxus), which forms the frontier between Afghanistan and the…

ANDRAGORAS, Seleucid satrap of Parthia and Hyrcania, known primarily from his coins. He presumably revolted against Antiochus II about 245 B.C. His dates of rule are unknown, as is his fate, although the rise of Arsaces I, founder of the Parthian dynasty at the same time may indicate the overthrow…