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A version of this article is available in printVolume XII, Fascicle 6, pp. 577-580i. IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIODPersian has two terms for hunting, naḵjīr and šekār, both of which have spread beyond Iranian languages. The first originated from a compound: *naxu- “first, top,” and *sčara-“what is to be chased,” giving the sense of “top quarry, i.e., quarry sought for the display of the outstanding skill which its pursuit required of the hunter” (Gershevitch, p. 192; Emmerick, p. 62, derives it from *nis-scrya “to be…

an Achaemenid prince.A version of this article is available in printVolume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 405 ARIABIGNES, an Achaemenid prince. His name derives from Old Ir. arya- + bigna, probably signifying “Gift of the Aryans [ = Iranians]” (W. Hinz, Altiranisches Sprachgut der Nebenüberliererungen, Wiesbaden, 1975, p. 39). He was a son of Darius the Great from a daughter of Gaubrava/Gobryas, one of the seven Persians who overthrew the Pseudo-Smerdis (Herodotus 7.97). He had been born prior to Darius’ accession (ibid., 7.2.97), and as one of the…

(Persian Aškānīān), Parthian dynasty which ruled Iran from about 250 BCE to about 226 CE. A version of this article is available in printVolume II, Fascicle 5, pp. 525-546 ARSACIDS (Persian Aškānīān), Parthian dynasty which ruled Iran from about 250 BCE to about 226 CE.i. Origins.ii. The Arsacid dynasty.iii. Arsacid coinage.iv. Arsacid religion.v. The “Arsacid” era.vi. Arsacid chronology in traditional history.vii. The Arsacid dynasty of Armenia.viii. Military Architecture Of Parthia.ARSACIDS i. OriginsOur sources on the ancestry of the eponymous founder of the dyn…

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. A version of this article is available in printVolume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 724-737 ASB, “horse” ( equus cabullus, Av. aspa-, Old PerS. asa- and aspa-, Mid. and NPers. asp/b).i. In Pre-Islamic IranFrom the dawn of history the Iranians have celebrated the horse in their art and in their literature.There were horses closely related to (and also the progenitors of) present-day domesticated horses living in temperate Eurasia in th…

i. Introduction AMAZONS, designation of a fabulous race of female warriors in Greek beliefs, writings, and art, fancifully explained as a-mazos (breastless or full-breasted, see Toepfer, in Pauly-Wissowa I/2, cols. 1765f.). Its derivation from Old Iranian *maz- (combat), producing a folkname *ha-mazan “warrior” (J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, I, p. 1959) is also disputed (M. Mayrhofer, “Das angebliche iranische Etyman des Amazonen-Namens,” Studi linguistici in onore di Vittore Pisani, II, Brescia, 1969, pp. 66l-66). The Greeks place…