ANTIOCH, city name given to a number of Seleucid foundations. Antioch in Persis, a settlement founded or refounded in Persis…

ANSHAN (or ANZAN), the name of an important Elamite region in western Fārs and of its chief city. Akkadian and…

ISFAHAN iv. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD The name of Isfahan. In Middle Persian sources, Isfahan (Mid. Pers. Spahān) occurs clearly as the…

CASPIAN GATES, an ancient toponym identifying a ground-level pass that runs east and west through a southern spur of the…

CHARACENE and CHARAX (Spasinou) in pre-Islamic times. Characene is the name Pliny gives for the later region of Mesene (called…

ARBELA (Assyrian Arbailu, Old. Pers. Arbairā, Gk. Arbēla, Ar. Erbīl, locally Erbel), capital of an ancient northern Mesopotamian province located…

FASĀ ii. Tall-e Żaḥḥāk Tall-e Żaḥḥāk (or Żohāk) is an appellation of no great age given to an expansive archeological…

ELYMAIS, semi-independent state frequently subject to Parthian domination, which existed between the second century B.C.E. and the early third century…