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ARDERIKKA, name of two ancient villages: (1) Arderikka in Assyria (Herodotus 1.185.2) was a kōmē (village) on the Euphrates above Babylon but can not be localized with certainty. There the Babylonian queen Nitōkris is said to have turned the course of the river in such a way that it passed…

ARDESTĀN, a town of central Iran between Kāšān and Nāʾīn, lying on the very border of the Dašt-e Kavīr. i. Geography. ii. Monuments. i. Geography The town is undoubtedly a very ancient one, and its name should probably be explained not as Moqaddasī (p. 390) would have it from the…

ARDESTĀNI, the dialect spoken in the small town of Ardestān (local name Asõ), belongs to the group of the so-called Central Dialects, but it seems to occupy a transitional position between the northern dialects (from Kāšān to Naṭanz) and the southern ones (from Nāʾīn to Yazd). According to some informants,…

ARDUMANIŠ, a Persian, son of Vahauka. In the Bīsotūn (Behistun) inscription, he is one of the six men who helped Darius to kill Gaumata, the False Smerdis (DB 4.86). The list of the conspirators given by Herodotus (3.70.78) has Aspathines instead of Ardumaniš. The latter was introduced by the Greeks…

ARDWAHIŠT (Av. Aša Vahišta, Mid. Pers. Ardwahišt, Ašawahišt; NPers. Ardībehešt, Ordībehešt), one of the six great Aməša Spəntas who, with Ahura Mazdā and/or his Holy Spirit, make up the Zoroastrian Heptad. Of the six, Aša has the clearest pre-Zoroastrian antecedents, since he hypostatizes the ancient Indo-Iranian concept called in Av….

ARDWAHIŠT (ORDĪBEHEŠT) YAŠT, the third in the series of Avestan hymns addressed to individual divinities. It is devoted to one of the greatest of the Zoroastrian Aməša Spəntas, Aša Vahišta (see Ardwahišt); yet it appears to be one of those yašts composed at a late date, presumably in an attempt…

ARFAʿ, ḤASAN, Iranian general, born in Tiflis in 1895, the eldest son of the veteran diplomat Prince Reżā Arfaʿ (Arfaʿ-al-dawla); his mother was half-English, half-Russian. He was educated in France before joining the Istanbul Military Academy in 1912. On his arrival in Iran in early 1914 he opted not for…

ARG (or ARK), the inner fortress or citadel of a walled city. The arg may also serve as the residence of a ruler and include other court and government offices. From Safavid through Qajar times, the arg of a provincial capital was generally the military headquarters and administrative center of…

ARG-E KARĪM KHAN, the citadel built by the Zand ruler Karīm Khan (1163-93/1750-79) at his capital Shiraz, lay to the northwest of the old town, not far from the Bāḡ-e Šāh gate and at the intersection of the Darb-e Šāhzāda and Maydān-e Šāh quarters. Today it is bounded by Nāṣer-e…