Table of Contents

  • ARANG

    C. J. Brunner

    a river in ancient Iranian tradition.

  • ARĀNĪ, TAQĪ

    E. Abrahamian, B. Alavi

    (1902-1940), Iranian Marxist and intellectual initiator of the communist Tudeh Party.

  • ARARAT

    X. de Planhol

    extinct volcano in the northeastern extremity of Turkey close to the Iran-Soviet frontiers.  

  • ARAŠ

    Cross-Reference

    Old Persian arašni-, Avestan araθni-) “cubit.” See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

  • ĀRAŠ

    A. Tafażżolī, W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

    Avestan Ǝrəxša, Middle Persian Ēraš, a heroic archer in Iranian legend. The Avesta (Yašt 8.6) refers to what was apparently a familiar episode in the epic tradition.

  • ĀRAŠ, KAY

    A. Tafażżolī

    Avestan KAVI ARŠAN, a member of the Kayanid dynasty in Iranian legend. 

  • ARASBĀRĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See AHAR.

  • ARAŠK

    Cross-Reference

    or AREŠK (Pahlavi), Avestan araska-, Persian rašk “envy,” in Middle Persian sometimes personified as a demon. See RAŠK (pending).

  • ARAXA

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Old Persian form of the name of a leader of a Babylonian rebellion against Darius I.

  • ARAXES RIVER

    W. B. Fisher, C. E. Bosworth

    The Araxes rises near Erzurum (Turkey) in the Bingöl Dağ region: there is only a low divide separating it from the headwaters of the Euphrates river. The drainage-pattern of the Araxes is complex. Subsidiary downthrow basins open off it, and a system of feeder tributaries occupying broad, flat-floored valleys has developed.

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  • ʿARAŻ

    F. Rahman

    a term of philosophy meaning “accident.” 

  • ARBĀB

    Š. Rāseḵ

    the plural of the Arabic noun rabb “owner, master, the Lord,” used in Persian to signify any sort of owner or master.

  • ARBĀB KAY-ḴOSROW-E ŠĀHROḴ

    Cross-Reference

    See ŠĀHROḴ.

  • ARBĀB ROSTAM GĪV

    Cross-Reference

    See GĪV.

  • ARBĀB, MOḤAMMAD-MAHDĪ

    S. Okazaki

    a prominent merchant and scholar of Isfahan (fl. ca. 1818-1896/97).

  • ARBACES

    M. A. Dandamayev

    Greek form of an Old Iranian proper name.

  • ARBAʿĪN

    M. Ayoub

    40th day after ʿĀšūrāʾ. A day of mourning, preferably at the shrine of Imam Ḥosayn, Arbaʿīn forms part of a cycle of days commemorating the burial of the imam and his companions.

  • ARBĀYISTĀN

    G. Widengren

    name of a Mesopotamian province in the Sasanian empire.

  • ARBELA

    J. F. Hansman

    capital of an ancient northern Mesopotamian province located between the two Zab rivers.  

  • ARBELA, BATTLE OF

    Cross-Reference

    the victory of Alexander the Great over Darius III on 1 October 331 BCE.; see GAUGAMELA.