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Avestan Geography
Avestan geography refers to the investigation of place names in the Avesta and the attempt to connect them to real-world geographical sites. It is connected to but different from the cosmogony expressed in the Avesta, where place names primarily refer to mythical events or a cosmological order. Identifying such connections is important for localizing the people of the Avesta and is therefore crucial for understanding the early history of Zoroastrianism and the Iranians. Sources for such geographical references are exclusively found in the younger Avestan portion of the text, in particular in the Vendidad and several of the Yashts. The identification of these Avestan place names with real locations is often supported by comparisons with references made in later Iranian sources. A major challenge to establish these connections is the fact that the Iranian people often used the same name for different places. As a result, not all Avestan place names can be identified with certa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avesta
The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian language, Persian: ()) is the text corpus of Zoroastrian literature, religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Modern Edition (book), editions of the Avesta are based on the various manuscript traditions that have survived in Zoroastrianism in India, India and Zoroastrianism in Iran, Iran. The individual texts of the Avesta were originally Oral tradition, oral compositions. They were composed over a long period of several centuries during the Avestan period, Old Iranian period (possibly ranging from 15th century BCE – 4th century BCE). The written transmission began during the Sassanian empire, Sassanian period, with the creation of the Avestan alphabet. The resulting texts were then compiled into a comprehensive edition of the Sasanian Avesta, Avesta in 21 volumes. This edition was lost sometime after the 10th century CE and only a small part survi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airyanem Vaejah
(; ; ; , 'the Arya Expanse') is considered in Zoroastrianism to be the homeland of the early Iranians and the place where Zarathustra received the religion from Ahura Mazda. The Avesta also names it as the first of the "sixteen perfect lands" that Ahura Mazda created for the Iranians. Based on these descriptions, modern scholarship initially focused on ''Airyanem Vaejah'' in an attempt to determine the homeland of the Iranians or Indo-Iranians in general. Among these early attempts, the region of Khwarezm emerged as a likely locale. More recent scholarship, however, no longer agrees as to where ''Airyanem Vaejah'' might have been located or to what extent it is a mythological rather than a specific historical place. Etymology and related words The Avestan and the Middle Persian are compound terms, where the first part is the adjective or genitive plural of Arya (, ; , ), respectively. This term also appears in Vedic Sanskrit as the self designation of the people of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan autonomous region of Uzbekistan. The name roughly translates from Mongolic and Turkic languages to "Sea of Islands", a reference to the large number of islands (over 1,100) that once dotted its waters. The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Formerly the third-largest lake in the world with an area of , the Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 2007, it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into four lakes: the North Aral Sea, the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea, and the smaller intermediate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chorasmia
Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by the Karakum Desert, and on the west by the Ustyurt Plateau. It was the center of the Iranian Khwarezmian civilization, and a series of kingdoms such as the Afrighid dynasty and the Anushtegin dynasty, whose capitals were (among others) Kath, Gurganj (now Konye-Urgench) andfrom the 16th century on Khiva. Today Khwarazm belongs partly to Uzbekistan and partly to Turkmenistan. Names and etymology Names Khwarazm has been known also as ''Chorasmia'', ''Khaurism'', ''Khwarezm'', ''Khwarezmia'', ''Khwarizm'', ''Khwarazm'', ''Khorezm'', ''Khoresm'', ''Khorasam'', ''Kharazm'', ''Harezm'', ''Horezm'', and ''Chorezm''. In Avestan the name is '; in Old Persian 𐎢𐎺𐎠𐎼𐏀𐎷𐎡𐏁 or 𐎢𐎺𐎠𐎼𐏀𐎷𐎡𐎹 (/hUvāra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Boyce
Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (2 August 1920 – 4 April 2006) was a British scholar of Iranian languages and an authority on Zoroastrianism. She was Professor of Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. The Royal Asiatic Society's annual Boyce Prize for outstanding contributions to the study of religion is named after her. Early years She was born in Darjeeling in British India where her parents were vacationing to escape the heat of the plains during the summer. Her father, William H. Boyce, was a Judge at the Calcutta high-court, then an institution of the British imperial government. Her mother Nora (née Gardiner) was a granddaughter of the historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner.John R. Hinnells, 'Boyce, (Nora Elisabeth) Mary (1920–2006)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2010; online edn, Sept 201accessed 8 Jan 2017/ref> Boyce was educated at Wimbledon High School and then Chelt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josef Markwart
Josef Markwart (originally spelled Josef Marquart: December 9, 1864 in Reichenbach am Heuberg – February 4, 1930 in Berlin) was a German historian and orientalist. He specialized in Turkish and Iranian Studies and the history of the Middle East. The ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' wrote that "His books are full of profound and nearly inexhaustible erudition, revealing that their author was a learned historian, philologist, geographer, and ethnologist." The encyclopedia cited his 1901 book ''Ērānšahr'' as "still an authoritative work and probably his most important." Biography He attended Tübingen University in Germany, where he studied Catholic theology, and then later switched his studies to classical philology and history. In 1889 he worked as an assistant to Eugen Prym, an orientalist author. His doctoral thesis ''Assyriaka des Ktesias'' was accepted and he graduated in 1892. In 1897 he began as a lecturer in ancient history. In 1900 he moved to Leiden, The Netherland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Bruno Henning
Walter Bruno Henning (August 26, 1908 – January 8, 1967) was a German scholar of Middle Iranian languages and literature, especially of the corpus discovered by the Turpan expeditions of the early 20th century. __TOC__ Biography Walter Henning was born in the ancient fortress town of Ragnit, East Prussia (now Neman, Russia), but grew up in Köslin in Pomerania on the Baltic Sea. Henning initially attended the University of Göttingen to study mathematics, and although he would soon choose to study Iranian languages instead, he would maintain an interest in mathematics for the rest of his life. At Göttingen, Henning was—together with Paul Thieme, Walther Hinz, Kaj Barr and Hans Jakob Polotsky—among the last group of students of Friedrich Carl Andreas, chairman of the faculty for Western Asian languages (), acknowledged authority on Middle Iranian literature and guiding force behind the analysis of the Turfan manuscripts. In 1931, Henning received a Ph.D. ''summa cum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia's republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia (country), Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city. The territory of what is now Azerbaijan was ruled first by Caucasian Albania and later by various Persian empires. Until the 19th century, it remained part of Qajar Iran, but the Russo-Persian wars of Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), 1804–1813 and Russo-Persian War (1826–1828), 1826–1828 forced the Qajar Empire to cede its Caucasian territories to the Russian Empire; the treaties of Treaty of Gulistan, Gulistan in 1813 and Treaty of Turkmenchay, Turkmenchay in 1828 defined the border between Russia and Iran. The region north o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tajikistan
Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to the Tajikistan–Uzbekistan border, west, Kyrgyzstan to the Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border, north, and China to the China–Tajikistan border, east. It is separated from Pakistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. It has a population of over 10.7 million people. The territory was previously home to cultures of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, including the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, Oxus civilization in west, with the Indo-Iranians arriving during the Andronovo culture. Parts of country were part of the Sogdia, Sogdian and Bactria, Bactrian civilizations, and was ruled by those including the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenids, Alexander the Great, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Greco-Bactrians, the Kushan Empire, Kushans, the Kid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran border, west, Turkmenistan to the Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border, northwest, Uzbekistan to the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border, north, Tajikistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, northeast, and China to the Afghanistan–China border, northeast and east. Occupying of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains Afghan Turkestan, in the north and Sistan Basin, the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's capital and largest city. Demographics of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's population is estimated to be between 36 and 50 million. Ancient history of Afghanistan, Human habitation in Afghanistan dates to the Middle Paleolithic era. Popularly referred to as the graveyard of empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gherardo Gnoli
Gherardo Gnoli (6 December 1937 in Rome – 7 March 2012 in Cagli) was a historian of Italian religions and Iran expert.Carlo Cereti, “GNOLI, GHERARDO,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2015, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gnoli-gherardo (accessed on 16 November 2015). Biography Gherardo Gnoli has been since 1996 the president of the Italian Institute for Africa and the East (IsIAO). He was also the head of the Public Counsel Institute and later the Italian Institute for the Middle and the Far East (ISMEO), which had been founded in 1933 by Giovanni Gentile and Giuseppe Tucci. He headed the Italy-Africa Institute (IIA), which had been founded in 1906 under the name of "Italian Colonial Institute" by Italian explorers, academics and diplomats. He was a professor of Iranian philosophy at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" (from 1965 to 1993), where he became the chancellor from 1971 to 1978 and the head of religious history of Iran and Central Asia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pahlavi Literature
Middle Persian literature is the corpus of written works composed in Middle Persian, that is, the Middle Iranian dialect of Persia proper, the region in the south-western corner of the Iranian plateau. Middle Persian was the prestige dialect during the era of Sasanian dynasty. It is the largest source of Zoroastrian literature. The rulers of the Sasanian Empire (224–654 CE) were natives of that south-western region, and through their political and cultural influence, Middle Persian became a prestige dialect and thus also came to be used by non-Persian Iranians. Following the Arab conquest of the Sassanian Empire in the 7th century, shortly after which Middle Persian began to evolve into New Persian, Middle Persian continued to be used by the Zoroastrian priesthood for religious and secular compositions. These compositions, in the Aramaic-derived Book Pahlavi script, are traditionally known as "Pahlavi literature". The earliest texts in Zoroastrian Middle Persian were probab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
