, a sovereign State, of the Muslim religion, for the most part Arabic-speaking, situated at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. i.—Geography The structure of ʿIrāḳ paradoxically derives its originality from the fact that it forms part of a large geographical block of territory. From the Arabo-Syrian desert tableland which it faces along its south-western flank, it takes its general aspect and its climate. All along its frontiers on the North-East, on the other hand, it shares the orientation and ¶ relief of the folded mountain-chains of western Asia, which give it its t…

, a pre-Islamic Persian dynasty that ruled a large part of western Asia from A.D. 224 until 651. In Arabic and modern usage, the dynastic name is derived from Sāsān, who is mentioned as a “lord” in the inscription of S̲h̲āpūr I [ q.v.] on the Kaʿba of Zoroaster (SKZ). The inscription of Narseh at Paikuli also refers to the royal clan of Sāsānagān. Theophoric names in the Parthian period suggest that Sāsān may have been a minor deity or perhaps a deified ancestor. According to the late Sāsānid Kārnāmag , Sāsān was the son-in-law of Pāpak, who gave him his daughte…

, the Arabs. (See also al-ʿarab , d̲j̲azīrat , as well as ʿarabiyya and the articles on the several Arab countries). (i) the ancient history of the arabs (For the ethnic origins of the Arabs cf. al-ʿarab ( ḏj̲azīrat al- ), section on Ethnography, cf. also para ii, below). The early history of the Arabs is still obscure; their origin and the events governing their early years are equally unknown to us. Probably we would know a good deal more about them, if Uranius’ five books of ’Αραβικά, which constituted a special monograph on the Arabs, had …

, “the Island of the Arabs”, the name given by the Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula. ¶ (i) preliminary remarks Although the Peninsula may not be the original cradle of the Arab people,, they have lived there for thousands of years and regard it in a very special sense as their homeland. For students of Islam, Western Arabia occupies a unique position as the land in which the Prophet Muḥammad was born, lived, and died. It was there that the inspiration of Allāh descended upon the Prophet, and to this Holy Land come ma…

arabic language and literature. Al-ʿarabiyya , sc. lug̲h̲a , also lisān al-ʿarab , is: The Arabic language in all its forms. This use is pre-Islamic, as is shown by the appearance of lās̲h̲ōn ʿărāb̲h̲ī in third-century Hebrew sources, arabica lingua in St. Jerome’s Praefatio in Danielem this probably is also the sense of lisān ʿarabī ( mubīn ) in Ḳurʾān, xvi, 103 (105); xxvi, 195; xlvi, 12 (11). (2) Technically, the Classical Arabic language (Cl. Ar.) of early poetry, Ḳurʾān, etc., and the Literary Arabic of Islamic literature. This may be distinguished from ʿarabiyya in the wider sense as al…

i.—Geography The geological background: The alignments of Iran’s principal topographie features, represented by the Kūhhā-yi Alburz and the Zagros Chain, are west to east and north-west to south-east, respectively. In broad context, the Alburz is a continuation of the European Alpine structures, while the Zagros chain has been linked through Cyprus with the Dinaric Alps (Fisher, 1956). The structure of the mountain rim of the country has been influenced strongly by tectonic movements which have n…