Table of Contents

• ĀS

  Mehdi Roschanzamir

  a game of playing cards which became popular in the Qajar era, and hence replaced ganjafa, the card game associated with the Safavids.

• ĀS

  cross-reference

  “Ossetia”; ĀSĪ “Ossetic, Ossete.” See ALANS; ALBANIA; ASII; OSSETIC.

• ĀŠ

  W. Eilers, ʿE. Elāhī, M. Boyce

  (thick soup), the general term for a traditional Iranian dish comparable to the French potage.

• AṦA

  B. Schlerath, P. O. Skjærvø

  “truth” in Avestan. The Indo-Iranian concept of truth is preserved in the Gāθās and in the younger Avesta unchanged.

• AṦA VAHIŠTA

  cross-reference

  See ARDWAHIŠT.

• ASʿAD B. NAṢR

  Cross-Reference

  See ABZARĪ.

• ASAD B. SĀMĀNḴODĀ

  C. E. Bosworth

  ancestor of the Samanid dynasty.

• ASADĀBĀD (1)

  C. E. Bosworth

  name of several towns in medieval sources, including the modern city.

• ASADĀBĀD

  D. Balland

  (or ASʿADĀBĀD), the official name of a small town in eastern Afghanistan, capital of Konar (Kunar) Province.

• ASADĀBĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR B. AḤMAD.

• ASADĀBĀDĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN

  Cross-Reference

  See AFḠĀNĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN.

• ASADALLĀH EṢFAHĀNĪ

  A. S. Melikian-Chirvani

  a signature borne by hundreds of fine blades, which is occasionally followed by dates ranging from the 17th to the 19th century.

• ASADĪ ṬŪSĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  (d. 1072-73), poet, linguist and copyist, from Ṭūs in Khorasan.

• ĀṢAF AL-LOḠĀT

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  title of a Persian dictionary.

• ĀṢAF KHAN

  P. Saran

  10th/16th century Mughal official and military commander.

• ĀṢAF-AL-DAWLA, ʿABD-AL-WAHHĀB

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• ĀṢAF-AL-DAWLA, ALLĀHYĀR

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• ĀṢAFĪ HERAVĪ

  A. ʿA. Rajāʾī

  a minor poet of the Timurid period (d. 923/1517).

• ASAGARTA

  W. Eilers

  an ancient Iranian tribe of uncertain location; they must have dwelt in the east of the kingdom. 

• ASĀLEM

  M. Bazin

  a mountainous district in Ṭāleš, now a dehestān of the central baḵš of the šahrestān of Ṭawāleš, province of Gīlān.

• ASĀLEMI dialect

  Cross-Reference

  See ṬĀLEŠI.

• AṢAMM, ABU BAKR

  F. W. Zimmermann

  (d. 200/815-6 or 201/816-7), Muʿtazilite of Baṣra.

• ĀŠAQLŪN

  Cross-Reference

  Manichean demon. See ĀSRĒŠTĀR.

• AʿSAR, ʿALAWAYH ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿALAWAYH AL-AʿSAR.

• ĀŠʿARĪ, ABŪ MŪSĀ

  Cross-Reference

  See ABŪ MŪSĀ AŠʿARĪ.

• AŠʿARĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN

  C. E. Bosworth

  scholastic theologian (motakallem) and founder of the theological school of the Ašʿarīya.

• AŠʿARĪYA

  A. Heinen

  (or Ashʿarism), an Islamic school of theological thought founded by Abu’l-Ḥasan Ašʿarī.

• ASĀS

  H. Halm

  “foundation, basis,” a degree of the Ismaʿili daʿwa hierarchy.

• ASĀṬĪR

  Cross-Reference

  See MYTHOLOGY.

• AŠAVAN (possessing Truth)

  G. Gnoli

  (Avestan), lit. “possessing truth (aša),”  referring to humans, Ahura Mazdā, and the divine or angelic entities.

• ASĀWERA

  C. E. Bosworth

  Arabic broken plural form of a singular oswār(ī), eswār(ī), early recognized by Arab philologists as a loanword from Persian meaning “cavalryman.”

• ʿAŠĀYER

  F. Towfīq

  “tribes” in Iran. 1. Definitions. 2. Historical background. 3. Population figures. 4. Territorial distribution: (a) Lor and Lak tribes; (b) Kurdish tribes; (c) Turkish tribes; (d) Arab tribes; (e) Baluch and Brahui tribes. 5. Organization. 6. Economy.

• ASB

  Multiple Authors

  ASB, “horse” (equus cabullus, Av. aspa-, Old PerS. asa- and aspa-, Mid. and NPers. asp/b); uses and significance of horses in the Iranian world.

• ASB i. In Pre-Islamic Iran

  A. Sh. Shahbazi

  the horse in the culture and society of the ancient Iranian world.

• ASB ii. Among the Scythians

  F. Thordarson

  the horse in Scythian culture.

• ASB iii. In Islamic Times

  ʿA. Solṭānī Gordfarāmarzī

  horses and horsemanship in Iran in the Islamic period.

• ASB iv. In Afghanistan

  C. E. Bosworth

  horses and horsemanship in Afghanistan.

   

• ASB-SAVĀRĪ

  J.-P. Digard

  "horse-riding." The Iranian lands, in the course of their long history, have been the source of major advances in the techniques of equitation.

• ĀŠBANAKKUŠ

  M. Mayrhofer

  name of an Iranian in the Persepolis Fortification Tablets.

• ASBĀNBAR

  Cross-Reference

  See MADĀʾEN.

• ASBĪĀN

  cross-reference

  See ĀBTĪN.

• ĀŠEʿʿAT AL-LAMAʿĀT

  A. E. Khairallah

  (The rays of the flashes), a detailed commentary by Nūr-al-dīn ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Jāmī (817/1414-898/1492).

• ʿĀṢEM EFENDĪ

  T. Yazici

  (1168/1755-1236/1819), an Ottoman Turkish linguist and chronicler.

• AŠƎM VOHŪ

  B. Schlerath

  the second of the four great prayers of the Zoroastrians, the others being: Ahuna vairyō (Y. 27.13), Yeŋˊhē hātąm (Y. 27.15), and Airyəˊmā išyō (Y. 54.1).

• ʿĀṢEMI, Moḥammad

  Habib Borjian

  (also Osimi and Asimov) Tajik educator, scholar, statesman, and humanist (b. Ḵojand, 1 September 1920; d. Dushanbe, 29 July 1996). His primary subject of interest was philosophy in the broad sense of the word, with particular attention to the achievements made in the East. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿĀŠEQ

  C. F. Albright

  in Azerbaijan, Iran, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, a poet and minstrel who accompanies his singing on a long-necked, fretted, plucked chordophone known as a sāz.

• ʿĀŠEQ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  K. Amīrī Fīrūzkūhī

  a Persian poet of the 12th/18th century (pen name ʿĀšeq).

• ʿĀŠEQ HAWĀSĪ

  C. F. Albright

  “melody of the ʿāšeq,” term referring to (1) a type of poem often sung by ʿāšeqs in Iranian Azerbaijan and (2) the typical manner of singing the poem and the manner of accompanying it on the musical instrument.

• ASFĀD JOŠNAS

  A. Tafażżolī

  a native of Ardašīr-ḵorra (Gūr, Fīrūzābād) who commanded the supporters of Šērōya.

• ASFAND

  H. Gaube

  a medieval district (kūra) of the quarter (robʿ) of Nīšāpūr of Khorasan province.

• ASFĀNŪR

  Cross-Reference

  See MADĀʾEN.

• ASFĀR AL-ARBAʿA

  F. Rahman

  (The four journeys), title of the magnum opus of Mollā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1641).

• ASFĀR B. ŠĪRŪYA

  C. E. Bosworth

  early 10th-century military leader during the period of Samanid expansion.

• ASFEZĀR

  C. E. Bosworth

  (or ASFŌZAR), designation of a district (kūra) and later its chief town in the Herat quarter of Khorasan.

• ASFEZĀRĪ, ABŪ ḤĀTEM

  D. Pingree

  5th/12th-century astronomer, of whose life almost nothing is known.

• ASFĪJĀB

  C. E. Bosworth

  (or ASBĪJĀB, ESBĪJĀB) a town and district of medieval Transoxania.

• ASHKHABAD

  B. Spuler

  (Russian; Persian ʿEšqābād), since the Soviet period the capital of Turkmenistan.

• ASHRAF, GHODSIEH

  Mahnaze A. da Silveira

  Throughout her life, Ghodsieh Ashraf repeatedly observed, not without pride, that her material belongings could be packed into one suitcase. Though she may not have been an easy taskmaster, she was served by an unflagging joie de vivre and cut a figure distinct from the traditional models of her times.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• AŠI

  B. Schlerath, P. O. Skjærvø

  Avestan feminine noun meaning “thing attained, reward, share, portion, recompense” and, as a personification, the goddess “Reward, Fortune.”

• ĀSĪĀ (or āsīāb, Mill)

  M. Harverson

  or āsīāb, "mill." Before World War II most grain ground to produce flour for the staple in the Iranian diet, bread, was processed by traditionally powered mills, principally watermills. Except in remote areas they have been replaced by diesel or electrically-driven mills, and old machinery has fallen derelict.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• Asia Institute

  Richard N. Frye

  founded in 1928 in New York City as the American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology, incorporated 1930 in the state of New York and active in Shiraz 1965-79. In its affiliation, functions, and publications, the Institute has had a complicated and eventful career, illustrating some of the vicissitudes of Iranian studies during the twentieth century.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ASIA INSTITUTE, BULLETIN OF THE

  Richard N. Frye

  originally Bulletin of the American Institute of Persian Art and Archaeology from July 1931; and the first issue was edited by Arthur Upham Pope, director of the Institute.

• ASIA MINOR

  M. Weiskopf

  Irano-Anatolian relations. The Iranians left their imprint above all on the art of governing.

• ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL

  Cross-Reference

  See BENGAL ii. Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal.

• ASII

  F. Thordarson

  (or ASIANI), an ancient nomadic people of Central Asia, who about 130 B.C. put an end to Greek rule in Bactria.

• ASINAEUS AND ANILAEUS

  M. Smith

  figure in Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities.

• ASĪR EṢFAHĀNĪ

  K. Amīrī Fīrūzkūhī

  a poet of the 11th/17th century (d. 1049/1639).

• ĀŠIRVĀD

  M. F. Kanga

  “blessing, benediction,” a set of prayers and admonitions recited by the two officiating Parsi priests in the Zoroastrian marriage ceremony.

• ʿASJADĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

   a poet of the first half of the 5th/11th century.

• ASK SPRINGS

  E. Ehlers

  The Ask springs, like those in other places around the base of Damāvand, are as yet used only by the local inhabitants. It remains to be seen whether they would repay commercial development (in the form of spa baths, bottling plants, etc.).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ĀŠKĀBĀD

  Cross-Reference

  See ASHKHABAD.

• AŠKĀNĪĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See ARSACIDS.

• ʿASKAR MOKRAM

  C. E. Bosworth

  a town of the medieval Islamic province of Ahvāz (Ḵūzestān) and also the name of the district of which it was the administrative center.

• ʿASKARĀN

  KAMRAN EKBAL

  village in Qarābāḡ about seven miles northeast of Stepanakert in the eastern Caucasus, where peace negotiations between Russia and Persia took place in 1225/1810.

• ʿASKARĪ

  H. Halm

  the 11th imam of the Twelver Shiʿites.

• ʿASKARĪ, ABŪ HELĀL

  W. M. Watt

  philologist and poet born about the middle of the 4th/10th century.

• ʿASKARĪ, ʿALĪ AL-HĀDĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿALĪ AL-HĀDĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN AL-ʿASKARĪ.

• AŠKAŠ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  an Iranian hero in the reign of Kay Ḵosrow.

• AŠKBŌS

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  a Turanian hero from Kašān or Košān in the story of “Kāmūs-e Kašānī,” in the Šāh-nāma.

• ASLAM, ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

   See ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM.

• ĀṢLĀNDŪZ

  J. Qāʾem-Maqāmī

  (or AṢLĀNDŪZ), a small village in the northeast of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.

• ĀSMĀN

  A. Tafażżolī

  (sky, heavens), in Zoroastrian cosmology the first part of the material (gētīg) world created by Ohrmazd.

• ASMĀR AL-ASRĀR

  S. S. K. Hussaini

  (Night-discourses of secrets), theosophical treatise in Persian composed by a 9th/15th century Češtī Sufi of India, Sayyed Moḥammad Ḥosaynī Gīsūdarāz (d. 825/1422), popularly known as Ḵᵛāǰa-ye Bandanavāz.

• ASMUSSEN, Jes Peter

  Werner Sundermann

  scholar of Iranian studies (1928-2002).

• AṢNĀF

  W. M. Floor

  the plural of ṣenf (class, kind category), collective designation of guilds in Iran since the 11th/17th century.

• ĀSNATAR

  W. W. Malandra

  one of the eight Zoroastrian priests (ratu) necessary for the performance of the yasna ritual.

• AŠŌ-DĀD

  M. F. Kanga

  Zoroastrian (Pazend) term for the remuneration to a priest for his services.

• ĀŠOFTA

  N. Parvīn

  a Persian magazine published in Tehran 1325 Š./1946-1336 Š./1957.

• ĀŠŌGAR

  Cross-Reference

  See AŠŌQAR.

• AŚOKA

  J. G. De Casparis, G. Fussman, P. O. Skjærvø

   Mauryan emperor of India (ca. 272-231 B.C.).

• ASOŁIK

  Michel van Esbroeck

   “the singer,” the usual name of Stephen of Tarōn.

• AŠŌQAR

  EIr

  in Syriac sources the name of a deity.

• ĀSŌRISTĀN

  G. Widengren

  name of the Sasanian province of Babylonia.

• ASP

  Cross-Reference

  See ASB.

• ASP-SAVĀRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ASB-SAVĀRĪ.

• ASPABAD

  Cross-Reference

  or ASPAPAT. See ASPBED.

• ASPAČANĀ

  A. Sh. Shahbazi

  a senior official under Darius the Great and Xerxes.

• ASPAND

  Cross-Reference

  See ESFAND.

• ASPARUKH

  D. M. Lang

  a Middle Iranian proper name attested in ancient Georgia and early medieval Bulgaria.

• ASPASII

  C. J. Brunner

  one of the tribal people encountered by Alexander the Great in Gandhāra, 327-26 B.C.