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ĀRYĀNĀ, Bulletin of the Historical Society of Afghanistan. Shortly after its establishment in 1321 Š./1942, the society initiated a monthly journal in Persian (called Darī in Afghanistan) and Paštō devoted to Afghan studies in the widest sense, treating matters of art and archeology, history and ethnography, languages, literature and paleography,…

ARYANDES, Achaemenid satrap of Egypt. The name is of uncertain etymology (R. Schmitt, “Medisches und persisches Sprachgut bei Herodot,” ZDMG 117, 1967, pp. 119-45 esp. p. 134 n.106). He was appointed by Cambyses in 522 B.C. (Herodotus 4.166). Soon after, a rebellion forced the imperial officials out (DB 2.5-8 with…

ARYANPUR, AMIR-HOSAYN (Amir-Ḥosayn Āryānpur, b. Tehran, 27 February 1925; d. Tehran, 30 July 2001), noted engagé intellectual, scholar, and educator of the 20th century Iran. i. Life. ii. Work.   i. Life Aryanpur was born to Faḵr-Irān Sepehri, a descendent of Moḥammad Taqi Sepehr, Lesān-al-Molk, the author of Nāseḵ-al-tavāriḵ, and Amir Mehdi…

ARYANS. Definition of the term “Aryan.” The name “Aryan” (OInd. āˊrya-, Ir. *arya- [with short a-], in Old Pers. ariya-, Av. airiia-, etc.) is the self designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran who spoke Aryan languages, in contrast to the “non-Aryan” peoples of those “Aryan” countries…

ARZAN, millet (Pahl. and modern Pers. dialects also ālum). The main species of millet probably originate from the Far East (A. Haudricourt and L. Hédin, L’homme et les plantes cultivées, Paris, 2nd ed., 1943, pp. 151-52) and seem to have been introduced into Iran from India (H. Wulff, The Traditional…

ARŽANG (Mid. Ir. Ardahang), an extra-canonical work of Mani. It was a volume of drawings and paintings (a negār-nāma, in a text quoted by Thomas Hyde in 1700 [Flügel, Mani, p. 383]) to illustrate the most important aspects of the dualistic doctrine. It probably formed an appendix to, but was…

ARZĀNI, MOḤAMMAD AKBAR (d. 1134/1722), an Indian author of works on medicine. His main Persian works, which circulated also through several Urdu translations, gained considerable diffusion among later physicians.  According to his own statement in the Ṭebb-e akbari, he had been a recluse in a convent (zāwia), later on he…

ARZENJĀN or ERZENJĀN (Greek Erzingan, Armenian Erēz, Erznga(n), in modern Turkish orthography Erzincan), a town of northeastern Anatolia in 39° 45’ north latitude and 39° 30’ east longitude, situated on the north bank of the Qara-sū, one of the headwaters of the Euphrates at an altitude of 1,200 m. It…

ĀRZŪ, SERĀJ-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ KHAN, major Indo-Muslim poet, lexicographer and litterateur (b. at Gwalior or Agra 1099/1687-88 or 1101/1689-90; see Storey, I/2, p. 834). On his father’s side he was descended from Naṣīr-al-dīn Maḥmūd Čerāḡ-e Dehlī, and on his mother’s side, from the Šaṭṭārī Shaikh Moḥammad Ḡawṯ Gwālīōrī. In 1132/1719-20, after…

ARZŪR, Mid. Pers. form of Avestan Arəzūra-, the name of a demon of unclear origin or function in Zoroastrian tradition. In the Avesta the name occurs only in the genitive singular, as part of the place name “head, summit of Arəzura” (with kamərəδa-) of “neck, ridge of Arəzura” (with grīvā-)….