MOLÉ, MARIJAN (b. Ljubljana, 28 July 1924; d. Paris, 6 May 1963; Plate I), distinguished scholar of Middle and Modern…

MIRACLES i. In Ancient Iranian Tradition The written accounts of miracles in ancient Iran, both those relating to Zoroaster and…

SYRIAC LANGUAGE iii. Syriac Translators as the Medium for Transmission of Greek Ideas to Sasanian Iran In 2005, Sebastian Brock…

GREECE xvi. Greek Ideas and Sciences in Sasanian Iran The arrival in Iran of Greek ideas and sciences cannot be…

MENASCE, JEAN PIERRE DE (b. Alexandria, Egypt, 24 December 1902; d. Paris, 24 November 1973), an eminent Iranist and historian…

TAFAŻŻOLI, AḤMAD (b. Isfahan, 16 Āḏar 1316 Š./7 December 1937; d. Tehran, 24 Dey 1375/13 January 1997, Figure 1), a…

COURTS AND COURTIERS ii. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods In the absence of records, a full picture of court…

ĒWĒNBED (master of manners; ʾdwynpty: KKZ 8, KNRm 25; cf. Gignoux, 1972, p. 15; also read āyēnbed), Pahlavi title attested…

DIRHAM (< Gk. drakhmē´ “drachma”; Mid. Pers. drahm, Pers. derham), a unit of silver coinage and of weight. i. In...

DINAR (NPers. dīnār, Mid. Pers dēnār < Lat. denarius aureus), a gold coin. i. In pre-Islamic Persia. ii. In Islamic...

DĒNKARD (lit., “Acts of the religion”), written in Pahlavi, is a summary of 10th-century knowledge of the Mazdean religion; the…

DĒNAG (< Mid. Pers. dēn, q.v.), name of several Sasanian queens; it was not feminine by derivation but was clearly...

DASTGERD (< *dasta-kṛta “made by hand, handiwork”), a term originally designating a royal or seigneurial estate. It is doubtful that...

CHILIARCH, Greek title of one of the chief offices of state in Achaemenid Persia, presumably translated from Old Persian hazārapati-,…

BESMELLĀH, Islamic formula meaning “in the name of God,” more fully Besmellāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm “in the name of God, the…

HELL i. IN ZOROASTRIANISM Hell is not explicitly mentioned in the Gathas. There are only allusions made to it, if…

HEALTH IN PERSIA i. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD Health and medicine are clearly defined in Pahlavi literature in the philosophical and moral…

HAMĒSTAGĀN, a word of uncertain etymology, used in Pahlavi literature to designate the intermediate stage between paradise and hell (see…

HAJIABAD i. THE INSCRIPTIONS The Hajiabad inscriptions were discovered by Robert Ker Porter at Ḥājiābād in 1818 in a grotto…

HAJIABAD (Ḥājiābād) INSCRIPTIONS, bilingual inscription of Šāpur I on the wall of Ḥājiābād cave near Persepolis. i. The Inscriptions. ii….

FRANCE xii(b). IRANIAN STUDIES IN FRANCE: PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD Partly because of the long tradition of philological studies in France which…

ZĀDSPRAM, a 9th-century Zoroastrian scholar and author. He was one of the four sons of Gušn-Jam (or Juwānjam, according to…

MARICQ, André, an eminently gifted epigrapher who died prematurely at the age of 34 (b. 29 November 1925 in Genval,…

SHAMANISM AND ITS CONNECTION TO IRAN. Archeological and ethnological sources in Iran do not lead to confirmation of the existence…

DRIYŌŠĀNJĀDAG-GŌW UD DĀDWAR, Middle Persian title of a Sasanian official, “intercessor and judge of the poor.” The first word is…

MICROCOSM and MACROCOSM in pre-Islamic Iranian thought. The theory of microcosm and macrocosm, i.e., of the correspondence between the different…

PAHLAVI PSALTER, name given to a fragment, consisting of twelve pages written on both sides, of a Mid. Pers. translation…