Table of Contents

• XANTHUS THE LYDIAN

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  Greek historiographer, son of a certain Kandaules, probably born in Sardis, and a Hellenized Lydian.

• XENOPHON

  Christopher J. Tuplin

  (ca. 430-353 BCE), Greek historian and essayist from Athens, who served among the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger.

• XERXES

  Multiple Authors

  name of two Achaemenid rulers and of some later princes.

• XERXES i. The Name

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  the common Greek (Xérxēs) and Latin form (Xerxes, Xerses) of the Achaemenid throne-name which in Old Persian is spelled x-š-y-a-r-š-a. 

• XIONGNU

  Étienne de la Vaissière

  (Hsiung-nu), the great nomadic empire to the north of China in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, which extended to Iranian-speaking Central Asia and perhaps gave rise to the Huns of the Central Asian Iranian sources.

• XRAFSTAR

  Cross-Reference

  (Avestan xrafstra-) “evil animals” in Zoroastrianism.  See MAMMALS iii. The Classification of Mammals and the Other Animal Classes according to Zoroastrian Tradition.

• XVADĀHOY

  Florence Jullien

  founder of a monastery in Beth Ḥāle in the Ḥira region, following the line of Abraham of Kaškar’s reform, which exerted a great influence throughout the area (7th century CE).

• XᵛĀRƎNAH

  Cross-Reference

  Avestan term (Mid. Pers. xwarrah), conventionally “glory.” See  FARR[AH].

• XWADĀY-NĀMAG

  Cross-Reference

  ‘Book of lords,” title of a Sasanian-period national history. See  HISTORIOGRAPHY ii. Pre-Islamic Period.

• XWĒŠKĀRĪH Ī RĒDAGĀN

  Mahnaz Moazami

  (The duty of children), a Pahlavi manual for Zoroastrian children regarding correct behavior.