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ARISTAGORAS, son of Molpagoras, tyrant of Miletus (late 6th-early 5th centuries B.C.). The Greek tradition for the most part goes back to Herodotus and is decidedly unfavorable to Aristagoras. Herodotus presents him as a negative character and reduces major historical events to the level of Aristagoras’s personal motivations. Some modern…

ARIYĀRAMNA (Elamite Har-ri-ya-ra-um-na, Akkadian Ar-ḭa-ra-am-na-ʾ, Greek Ariaramnēs), Old Persian proper name; the derivation from *Aryārāman-, from aryā “Arians” and rāman- “joy, peace,” signifying “He who brings peace to the Arians” (Bartholomae, AirWb., cols. 199, 1524) is problematic (see Kent, Old Persian, p. 170; W. Brandenstein and M. Mayrhofer, Handbuch des…

ARIZANTOI, people comprising one of the six tribes (génos) of the Median nation (éthnos) as listed by Herodotus (1.101). Cf. the ten tribes of the Persian nation (1.125). Etymologically the term is *arya-zantu-, “having Aryan lineage.” Cf. Young Av. huzantu- and Gathic huzə̄ntu-, “having good lineage,” in Yt. 13.134 and…

ARJĀN TOMB, the late Neo-Elamite elite burial (ca. 630-550 BCE) near Behbahan in southwestern Iran (Figure 1).  In 1982, a bulldozer leveling the ground for the construction of a road leading to a dam on the river Mārun cut through a stonewalled funerary chamber.  Except for skeletal remains, all objects…

ARJĀSP (Av. Arəǰaṱ.aspa), a chief of the Iranian tribe of the Xyōns (Av. Hyaona-), and an enemy of Kay Goštāsp (Kavi Vištāspa), patron of Zoroaster (Yašt 9.30, 5.109). In the later tradition he is represented as a king of Tūrān and the son of Šavāsp, brother of Afrāsīāb (Ṭabarī, II,…

ARJOMAND, Ḵalil (Khalil Ardjomande; b. Tehran, 1910; d. Tehran, 22 October 1944), mechanical and electrical engineer, professor at the University of Tehran, inventor, and industrialist (FIGURE 1). Arjomand is known for numerous inventions, for founding the ARJ Factory and single-handedly leading it to become a dominant source of technological innovation…

ARLEZ, (Arm. aralez or yaralez), term for a supernatural creature in Armenian, of uncertain etymology. Arlezkʿ (plur.) were believed to have licked the corpse of Ara back to life, hence the most common folk etymology, from “Ara” and Arm. lez- “lick.” Eznik Kołbacʿi (5th cent. A.D.) explained that the Arlez was…

ARMAḠĀN, a monthly literary magazine founded in Tehran in Bahman, 1298 Š./Jan.-Feb., 1919 by Ḥasan Waḥīd Dastgerdī. Dastgerdī was a native of Isfahan, but after taking part in the constitutional movement and spending some time in exile in the Baḵīāri country he gave up politics and moved to Tehran, where…

ARMAITI (Spəntā Ārmaiti, Pahl. Spandārmad, Pers. Isfandārmad), one of the six great Aməša Spəntas who, with Ahura Mazdā and/or his Holy Spirit, make up the Zoroastrian Heptad. The common noun ārmaiti- has a Vedic cognate arámati- (fem.) “piety, devotion” and the Rig Veda knows a goddess Aramati, “seemingly already by then…

ARMAVIR (Gk. Armaouira, Lat. Armavira), one of several cities of the plain of Ararat which successively served as the capital of ancient Armenia. Armavir (40° 50′ north latitude, 44° 03′ east longitude) was founded on a previously unoccupied hill overlooking the Araxes river by the Urartian King Argisti I (ca….

ARMAZI (or ARMAZ-TSIKHE), an important royal city of Georgia (Iberia) situated close to the modern township of Mtskheta. The ancient Armazi was far more extensive than the modern Mtskheta; its strategic situation was dictated by its ready access to the Daryal Pass or Gate of the Alans, the main road…

ARMĀʾĪL (Mid. Pers. Armāyēl “the Aramean,” with a Georgian ethnic suffix, as noted by Markwart, Provincial Capitals, p. 68), a legendary figure in the myth of Ẓaḥḥāk. In Mid. Pers. literature, he is mentioned in a corrupt passage of Šahristānīhā ī Īrān (sec. 28, in Markwart, op. cit., p. 15,…

 ARMENIA i. THE IMAGE OF PERSIANS IN In the Sasanian period Armenians developed a self-awareness as Christians against the background of their earlier Iranian social and religious culture (see ARMENIA AND IRAN i-v). Although written texts, beginning in the fifth century CE, only give a partial view of Armenian ideas…

ARMENIA ii. ARMENIAN WOMEN IN THE LATE 19TH- AND EARLY 20TH-CENTURY PERSIA Armenian women in general, and Armenian women in Persia more specifically, have received very little scholarly attention for a variety of reasons, from a lack of available sources to a lack of scholarly interest. Yet their contribution to…