ALBORZ iii. Geography The Alborz mountains form the central part of the northern arc of mountains in Iran, which extend…

ʿARAB iv. Arab Tribes of Iran 1. General. Since ancient times Iranians and Arabs have lived in neighboring areas. During…

BARQ, the modern Persian term for electricity, borrowed from Arabic barq “lightning, flash of lightning.” Pashto uses brēṧna “lightning.” i….

BARF “snow” (from OIr. *vafra- “snow,” root vap- “to toss in the air, to pile up”; cf. OInd. vápati “to…

ANTI-ALBORZ, the highland between Tehran and Semnān on the southern flank of the central Alborz range. The name, which has…

ALĪ KĀY, a semi-nomadic Gīlakī-speaking tribe that winters in the foothills of the central Alborz; about three hundred families stay…

ALAMŪT, a high, isolated valley in the Alborz thirty-five kilometers northeast of Qazvīn; the center of an autonomous Ismaʿili state,…