ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY IN IRAN i. History of astronomy in Iran. ii. Astronomy and astrology in the Sasanian period. iii….

ASPASII, one of the tribal people encountered by Alexander the Great in Gandhāra, 327-26 B.C. (Arrian, Anabasis 4.23-25). While part…

ARTABAZANES, autonomous ruler of Armenia who submitted to the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 220 B.C., when the latter invaded…

ARIZANTOI, people comprising one of the six tribes (génos) of the Median nation (éthnos) as listed by Herodotus (1.101). Cf….

ARIARATUS, Latinized form of the name Ariarathes in Justin’s summary of Trogus Pompeius’ Philippic Wars 10.1.1, one of the three…

ARANG, a river in ancient Iranian tradition. Middle Persian Arang/Arag renders Avestan Raŋhā, which is cognate with the Scythian name…

APŌŠ, Middle Persian for Av. Apaoša, the demon of drought. He is the evil protagonist of Tištar (Av. Tišrya), the…

ANŌŠAG-RUWĀN, Mid. Pers. term of “immortal soul,” originally a respectful euphemism, becoming in the Islamic period an aristocratic proper name….

ANDARWĀYWĀZĪG, Middle Persian term for “acrobat, tumbler” (lit. “one who plays in the air”). It occurs in the Pahlavi andarz…

AḴŠONVĀR, The imperfect recording in Arabic (Ṭabarī, I, p. 874ff.) of an eastern Middle Iranian term for “king;” it is…

AIRYAMAN IŠYA, Gathic Avestan prayer (named from its opening words, ā airyəmā išyō) of Y. 54.1. etc. It may originally…

AHUNWAR, Middle Persian form of Avestan Ahuna Vairya, name of the most sacred of the Gathic prayers (Y. 27.13, etc.)….

AHLOMŌG, Middle Persian form of Younger Avestan ašəmaoγa- “one who produces confusion of Truth,” a term applied to Iranian priests…

ĀDURFRĀZGIRD, a brother of the Sasanian king Šāpūr II (A.D. 309-79) who is mentioned in the Syriac Acts of the…

ADRAPANA, the third station from the western border of “Upper Media” recorded by Isidore of Charax in the 1st century…

ABRĀZ, Middle Persian “high, superior, height,” old Iranian *uparyānk- “above, high.” For the literal sense of the word, cf. Bundahišn,…

ABOULITES, satrap of Susiana under Darius III, at the time of the Achaemenid collapse. He was perhaps an Elamite, although…

ABRADATAS, a fictional king of Susa in Xenophon’s fictional, didactic life of Cyrus (Cyropaedia, books 5-7). He and his wife,…

ABDAGASES (Pkt. Avadagaṣa), “great king” of the Pahlava dynasty in Drangiana, Arachosia, Gandhāra, and perhaps loosely over the Indus region….

ABARSĒN, Middle Persian form of the Avestan name Upāiri.saēna, designating the Hindu Kush mountains (Average. iškata; Mid. Pers. kōf, gar)…

JAPAN i. INTRODUCTION The seventh-eighth century Japanese annals depict an early ruler (tennō “emperor”) of Yamato, centered in the area…

IRAN v(2). Pre-Islamic Period This survey focuses on the early phase of the Iranian-speaking peoples’ presence on the plateau, during…

OROITES, the Graecicized form (Oroítēs) of an Old Iranian name of unclear etymology (perhaps hypocoristic *Arv-ita- from OIr. *arva- =…