Search

, the river of Harāt, which flows for almost 350 miles from the Dai Zangī mountains, west of the Kūh-i Bābā range in central Afg̲h̲ānistān to the oasis of Marw. The river flows south of Harāt, and some thirty miles west of the city it changes direction and flows north. For about sixty miles it forms the boundary between Īrān and Afg̲h̲ānistān before flowing into the Soviet Union. It irrigates the Tad̲j̲and oasis and then is lost in the sands. In the early spring the river is swift and deep at Harāt but in the late autumn it is low and passable. (R.N. Frye) Bibliography Yāḳūt, s.vv. Harāt and Sarak̲h̲s Ḥ…

This name was formerly used for the ill-defined province of Persian Kurdistān, the major part of which at present is the district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of Sanandad̲j̲ (formerly Senna). For the geography see kurdistān (Persian). Usually the name refers to the Banū Ardalān who were rulers of much of Kurdistān from the 14th century A.D. The origin of this extended family is unknown, but according to the S̲h̲araf-nāma , Bābā Ardalān was a descendant of the Marwānids of Diyār Bakr, who settled among the Gūrān in Kurdistān. Another source (B. Nikitine, Les Valis ) says Ardalā…

, a village and township ( dihistān ), in the district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of Ardabīl, county ( bak̲h̲s̲h̲ ) of Garmī, lying in the mountains overlooking the plain of Mug̲h̲ān to the north. The name ¶ may mean “high place”. The village lies ca. 47° 40′ E. long. (Greenw.) and 39° 20′ N. lat. A confusion between Barzand and Barzand̲j̲ (near Tiflis) appears in several of the mediaeval geographers (cf. Yāḳūt, i, 562; Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , 403). This confusion, together with a remark of Muḳaddasī, 378, that Barzand was a market for Armenians, helps to explain why several geographers ( e.g., Yāḳūt) placed Ba…

( Herāt ), a city and district on the Harī Rūd in western Afg̲h̲ānistān, altitude: 3,030 feet, 34° 22′ N., 62° 9′ E. Among the forms of the name preserved in Arabic and Persian literature we find Harā, Harāh and older Harē from Harēv. Armenian has Hrev. The city is mentioned in the Old Persian inscriptions (Haraiva), in the Avesta, and in Greek as Αρία or Αρεία. Alexander the Great built a city here called Alexandria in Aria. Other towns on the Harī Rūd are mentioned by Ptolemy, Isidore of Charax, and others, an indication of the fertility o…

(also Fāriyāb and Paryāb ), name of several towns in Iran: 1. A town in northern Afg̲h̲ānistān, now called Dawlatābād, formerly in the province of Ḏj̲ūzd̲j̲ān. It was conquered by al-Aḥnaf b. Ḳays in 65/685 (al-Balād̲h̲urī, 407). Many geographers mention the town as large and flourishing until the Mongol conquest when it was destroyed. It never regained its former importance. 2. A small town in southern Fārs province (Le Strange, 257, 296). 3. A village in Kirmān (Le Strange, 317). ¶ 4. A village in Sug̲h̲d (Barthold, 138; Frye, The History of Bukhara , 1954, 152). (R.N. Frye) Bibliography Ba…

(Fērōzkōh). The name of several localities. 1. The capital of the G̲h̲ūrid [ q.v.] kings, in the mountains east of Herat on the upper Harī-rūd ca. 64° 22′ E. Long. (Green.) and ca. 34° 23′ N. Lat. The site has been identified with the present Ḏj̲ām [ q.v.] where a large minaret still exists. The town of Fīrūzkūh was built by Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Muḥammad as the capital of the district of Wars̲h̲āda ¶ in G̲h̲ūr which he ruled. When Ḳuṭb al-Dīn was poisoned in G̲h̲azna, his brother Bahā al-Dīn moved from his appanage, Mandes̲h̲ in the east, to Fīrūzkūh. Bahā al-Dīn became rule…

( balōčistān ), land of the Balōč. A. Geography and History. The exact boundaries of Balōčistān are undetermined. In general it occupies the S.E. part of the Iranian plateau from the Kirmān desert east of Bam and the Bas̲h̲agird Mts. to the western borders of Sind and the Pand̲j̲āb. This arid and mountainous country with a predominantly nomadic population is divided between Iran and Pakistān. At present Balōč are also found in Sind and the Pand̲j̲āb, in Sīstān and a few nomads in the USSR near Marw, [see above]. The rivers of Balōčistān are small and unimportant. One may consider th…

, ( bihistūn of the Arabic geographers, Bīstūn in present local parlance), a mountain ca. 30 km. E. of Kirmāns̲h̲āh on the main road from Bag̲h̲dād to Hamadān. The name is found in Greek sources (Diodorus 2.13 and Isidore of Charax) τὸ βαγίστανον ὄρος, and in early Islamic authors (as al-Ḵh̲wārizmī and Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī) where we find the archaic form Bag̲h̲istān, Old Persian* bāgastāna “place of the gods”, (or one divinity in particular). Later Islamic authors have the form Bihistūn (Bahistūn) which in modern tim…

(Turkish Erdebīl). A district and a town in eastern Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. The town is located ¶ at 48° 17ʹ E. long. (Greenw.) and 38° 15ʹ N. lat. The distance to Tabrīz is 210 km. by road, and it is 40 km. to the Soviet frontier. The altitude of the town is 4,500 ft. above sea level, and it is situated on a circular plateau surrounded by mountains. The district ( s̲h̲ahristān ), of which the town is the capital, comprises four counties ( bak̲h̲s̲h̲ ), capital county, Namīn, Āstārā, and Garmī. There are few trees around the town and irrigation is necessary for cultivation. Some 20 m. west…

, four semi-nomadic tribes in western Afg̲h̲ānistān [see aymaḳ ]. There is little information and much confusion about these tribes, consequently various sources have different names, locations and even languages ascribed to them. At the present they speak Persian and are Sunnīs, unlike the S̲h̲īʿī Hazāras with whom the Čahār Aymaḳ are closely linked. Some sources erroneously identify the two. The origin of the name Čahār Aymaḳ is unknown but is at least as early as the 18th century…

, an imprecise designation of those mountain peoples of the Pamirs who speak Iranian lamguages. The term has been used in English scholarly literature for the Iranian Pamir languages. In New Persian the word means ‘peasant’ or ‘ruffian’, while in Tād̲j̲ikī it means ‘squat, stupid’. In old Yag̲h̲nābi g̲h̲alča meant ‘slave’. The origin of the word is uncertain, for one might compare Sogdian γδ ‘to steal’, (Pashto γәl ‘thief’) or Sogdian γ r ‘mountain’, hence ‘mountaineer’. Usually the term G̲h̲alča has been used in modern literature to cover the …

(Syriac Arzōn, Armenian Arzn, Ałzn). The name of several towns in eastern Anatolia. The most important was the chief city of the Roman province of Arzanene, Armenian Ałd̲z̲nik̲h̲, located on the east bank of the Arzanṣū River (modern Garzansu) a tributary of the Tigris, at about 41° 41ʹ E. long. (Greenw.) and 38° N. lat. By Islamic authors Arzan is linked with the larger city to the west, Mayyāfāriḳīn. The origin of the name is uncertain but of undoubted antiquity; see the discussion in H. Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen , in Indogermanische Forschungen , …

(also Farmul ). A town east of G̲h̲azna in Afghanistan near Gardēz. It is mentioned by al-Muḳaddasī (296), and the Ḥudūd al-ʿālam (251). The exact location of the town is unknown and it no longer exists. (R.N. Frye)

(also basṭām , rarer bosṭām ). A town of ca. 4,000 inhabitants (1950) in Ḵh̲urāsān. in the district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of S̲h̲āhrūd, and county ( bak̲h̲s̲h̲ ) of Ḳalʿa-i naw. It is located 6 km. N. of S̲h̲āhrud at 55 E. Long. (Greenw.) and 36° 30′ N. Lat, on a spur of the Elburz mountains. The pre-Islamic history of the town is unknown. According to one tradition the town was founded by Bisṭām, governor of Ḵh̲urāsān during the rule of his nephew Ḵh̲usraw II Parwīz, ca. 590 A.D. Yāḳūt attributes the town to S̲h̲āpūr II (cf. Schwarz, 821). During the Ara…

( G̲h̲ald̲j̲ī , G̲h̲ilzay ), a large western Afg̲h̲ān (Pas̲h̲to speaking) tribe with many subdivisions, mainly located between Ḳandahār and G̲h̲azna. Much has been written about the origins of the G̲h̲alzay and one may assume they are a mixture, including Hephthalite and Turkish elements. The name in Pas̲h̲to would mean ‘the son of G̲h̲al.’ which in turn means ‘thief’. This is the popular explanation of the name G̲h̲alzay. According to legends in the Mak̲h̲zan-i Afg̲h̲ānī , the G̲h̲alzays are descended from Mato, a daughter of Bitan (or Batnī) who…

, name for a salt plain in eastern Īrān, Afg̲h̲ānistān and Balūčistān, usually the drainage area of a river. The etymology of the word, found in Pahlavi as das̲h̲t-ē hāmūn , is disputed, but it is used especially for the lake in Sīstān into which the Hilmand River [ q.v.] drains. This lake or swamp changes its size and even location according to the season. The usual name for the lake, until recent times, was Zarah or Zirih (compare Avestan zrayah “lake”), but this name is now used for the depression in Afg̲h̲ānistān south of Sīst…

(dialect (Erdekūn), town in Persia situated 32° 18′ N. Lat. and 53° 50′ E. Long. (Greenw.) on the present route from Nāʾīn to Yazd. It is located on the edge of the desert. To the north is the district ( bulūk ) of ʿAḳdā, and to the south Maybūd. It is located at a height of 3280 ft. above sea level. The identification with Ptolemy’s ᾿Αρτακάνα (Tomaschek, in Pauly-Wissowa , s.v.) is open to doubt, and there are no ancient ruins in the town. Ibn Ḥawḳal (Kramers), 263, mentions a town Ad̲h̲arkān on the edge of the desert near Yazd which may be…

(also Parwān ), ancient town in the Hindū-Ḳush mountains and a modern administrative district of Afg̲h̲ānistān, the capital of which is Charikar. The modern town of D̲j̲abal al-Sirād̲j̲ (alt. 3751 m.) is located near the site of the ancient Farwān, ca. 69° 15′ E., 35° 7′ N. by the Pand̲j̲s̲h̲īr river near its junction with the G̲h̲ūrband river. Farwān may have occupied the ancient site of Alexander’s Alexandria of the Caucasus or Alexandria-Kapisa. It was conquered by the Arabs ca. 176/792 (Ibn Rusta, 289) and included in the province of Bamiyān. Coins…

(from Balōčī d̲j̲ahla ‘‘below” or “southern”), district of Pakistani Balōčistān, lying below Sarawān. Formerly part of the K̲h̲ānate of Kalāt and one of the two great divisions of the ¶ Brahōīs (or Brahūī). Area, 21,128 sq. miles, population unknown, estimated 100,000. The capital is K̲h̲uzdār and the population is mainly Brahōī with a few Balōč and Lōrīs. It is mainly a grazing country. (R.N. Frye) Bibliography Baluchistan Gazeteer, vi, B, Bombay 1907 M. G. Pikulin, Belud̲z̲hi, Moscow 1959.

(today Gižduvan), a large village in the northeastern part of the oasis of Buk̲h̲ārā, on the tributary of the Zarafs̲h̲ān River at present called Pirmast, formerly the Ḵh̲arḳān Rūd. The origin of the village and etymology of the name are unknown. It is mentioned as a village of the town of Rāmitīn by al-Muḳaddasī (267c), but no notices are found in other geographies. Al-Samʿānī (406b) says the village was six farsak̲h̲s from Buk̲h̲ārā, and was an important commercial centre. It is mentioned several times in Islamic texts as…