ĀYADANA “place of cult.” The term occurs once in the Old Persian Bīstūn inscription of Darius I (DB 1.63f.): āyadanā…

ATHENAIOS of NAUCRATIS, wrote the Deipnosophistai (Sophists at dinner), his only extant work, in which in about a hundred passages…

AOGƎMADAĒČĀ, a small prayer and meditation on death, made up of twenty-nine Avestan quotations (one of them Gathic) embedded in…

ANQUETIL-DUPERRON, ABRAHAM HYACINTHE (1731-1805), French orientalist, born in Paris on 7 December 1731, the fourth of seven children of Pierre…

AKŌMAN, “Evil Mind,” a term personified as a demon in Zoroastrianism. It is apparently not yet wholly personified in the…

AHRIMAN (Avestan: Angra/Aŋra Mainyu; not attested in Old Persian), demon, God’s adversary in the Zoroastrian religion. He seems to have…

ĀDĀ “requital” in Avestan. In the Gāthās the term implies a two-way process. It may proceed from Ahura Mazdā to…

FRANCE ix. THE IMAGE OF PERSIA AND PERSIAN LITERATURE AMONG FRENCH AUTHORS Whereas Germany could vaunt Goethe’s West-östlicher Diwan and…

ANTHROPOMORPHISM in Iranian religions. Ahura Mazdā in the gāthās was conceived of, although invisible and immortal, as of human form, with…