1.
Friday
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Friday is the day after Thursday and the day before Saturday. In countries adopting Monday-first conventions as recommended by the international standard ISO8601, in countries that adopt a Sunday-first convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In other countries, Friday is the first day of the week-end, in Afghanistan and Iran, Friday is the last day of the week-end, with Saturday as the first day of the working week. In Iran, Friday is the only week-end day, in Saudi Arabia and the Maldives, there are two week-ends where Friday is the first week-end of the week while Saturday is the second week-end. The same holds for Frīatag in Old High German, Freitag in Modern German, the expected cognate name in Old Norse would be *friggjar-dagr. However, the name of Friday in Old Norse is frjá-dagr instead, the modern Scandinavian form is Fredag in Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish, meaning Freyjas day. The distinction between Freyja and Frigg in some Germanic mythologies is contested and this is also reflected in the p-Celtic Welsh language as Gwener. The Sardinian word chenàpura also figures as an exception among all the other Romance languages and this name had been given by the Jewish community exiled to the island in order to designate the food specifically prepared for Shabbat eve. In Arabic, Friday is الجمعة al-jumah, from a root meaning congregation/gathering, in languages of Islamic countries outside the Arab world, the word for Friday is commonly a derivation of this. In modern Greek, four of the words for the week-days are derived from ordinals, however, the Greek word for Friday is Paraskevi and is derived from a word meaning to prepare. Like Saturday and Sunday, Friday is named for its significance as the day of preparation before Sabbath. In both biblical and modern Hebrew, Friday is Yom Shishi meaning the sixth day, in most of the Indian languages, Friday is Shukravar, named for Shukra, the Sanskrit name of the planet Venus. In Japanese, 金曜日 is formed from the words 金星 meaning Venus, in the Korean language, it is 금요일 in Korean Hangul writing, as is pronounced of the written word 金曜日 in Chinese characters, as in Japanese. In the Nahuatl language, Friday is Quetzalcōātōnal meaning day of Quetzalcoatl, the Hungarian word péntek is a loan from Pannonian dialect of Slavic language. The n in péntek suggests an early adoption from Slavic, when many Slavic dialects still had nasal vowels, in modern Slavic languages only Polish retained nasal vowels. Friday is considered unlucky in some cultures and this is particularly so in maritime circles, perhaps the most enduring sailing superstition is that it is unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday. This superstition is the root of the urban legend of HMS Friday. In modern times, Friday the 13th is considered to be especially unlucky, such a Friday may be called a Black Friday
2.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
3.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
4.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
5.
March equinox
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In the Northern Hemisphere the March equinox is known as the vernal equinox, and in the Southern Hemisphere as the autumnal equinox. On the Gregorian calendar the Northward equinox can occur as early as 19 March or as late as 21 March. For a common year the computed time slippage is about 5 hours 49 minutes later than the previous year, and for a leap year about 18 hours 11 minutes earlier than the previous year. Balancing the increases of the years against the losses of the leap years keeps the calendar date of the March equinox from drifting more than one day from 20 March each year. The March equinox may be taken to mark the beginning of spring and the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere but marks the beginning of autumn, in astronomy, the March equinox is the zero point of sidereal time and, consequently, right ascension. It also serves as a reference for calendars and celebrations in many human cultures, the March equinox is one point in time commonly used to determine the length of the tropical year. The mean tropical year is the average of all the tropical years measured from every point along the Earths orbit. The following table shows the small variations in timing over a period of time. The point where the Sun crosses the equator northwards is called the First Point of Aries. However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, this point is no longer in the constellation Aries, by the year 2600 it will be in Aquarius. The Earths axis causes the First Point of Aries to travel westwards across the sky at a rate of one degree every 72 years. It passed by a corner of Cetus at 0°10′ distance in the year 1489. In its apparent motion on the day of an equinox, the Suns disk crosses the Earths horizon directly to the east at dawn—rising, the March equinox, like all equinoxes, is characterized by having an almost exactly equal amount of daylight and night across most latitudes on Earth. Due to refraction of light rays in the Earths atmosphere the Sun will be visible above the horizon even when its disc is completely below the limb of the Earth and these conditions produce differentials of actual durations of light and darkness at various locations on Earth during an equinox. This is most notable at the extreme latitudes, where the Sun may be seen to travel sideways considerably during the dawn. The Persian calendar begins each year at the equinox, observationally determined at Tehran. The Indian national calendar starts the year on the day next to the equinox on 22 March with a 30-day month. The Julian calendar reform lengthened seven months and replaced the intercalary month with a day to be added every four years to February
6.
Iran Standard Time
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Iran Standard Time or Iran Time is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03,30, IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of Iran. Between 2005 and 2008, by decree of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it was reintroduced from 21 March 2008. Iran is unusual in that the dates of DST transitions arent based on a such as the third Monday in September. So in most countries, DST transitions occur on the same every year
7.
Meridian (geography)
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A meridian is the half of an imaginary great circle on the Earths surface, terminated by the North Pole and the South Pole, connecting points of equal longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude indicating how many degrees north or south of the Equator the point is, each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude. Each is also the length, being half of a great circle on the Earths surface. Most maps show the lines of longitude, the position of the prime meridian has changed a few times throughout history, mainly due to the transit observatory being built next door to the previous one. Such changes had no significant practical effect, historically, the average error in the determination of longitude was much larger than the change in position. The adoption of WGS84 as the system has moved the geodetic prime meridian 102.478 metres east of its last astronomic position. The position of the current geodetic prime meridian is not identified at all by any kind of sign or marking in Greenwich, but can be located using a GPS receiver. The term meridian comes from the Latin meridies, meaning midday, the same Latin stem gives rise to the terms a. m. and p. m. used to disambiguate hours of the day when utilizing the 12-hour clock. Therefore, a compass needle will be parallel to the magnetic meridian, the angle between the magnetic and the true meridian is the magnetic declination, which is relevant for navigating with a compass. Searchable PDF prepared by the author, C. A. White, resources page of the U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Meridian
8.
2nd millennium BC
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The 2nd millennium BC spans the years 2000 through 1000 BC. It marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age and its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot, chariot warfare and population movements lead to violent changes at the center of the millennium, a new order emerges with Greek dominance of the Aegean and the rise of the Hittite Empire. The end of the sees the transition to the Iron Age. World population begins to rise steadily, reaching some 50 million towards 1000 BC, the Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and their contemporary Kings of Babylon, of Amorite origin, brought good governance without much tyranny, and favoured elegant art and architecture. Farther east, the Indus Valley civilization was in a period of decline, possibly as a result of intense, Egypt and Babylonias military tactics were still based on foot soldiers transporting their equipment on donkeys. Combined with an economy and difficulty in maintaining order, this was a fragile situation that crumbled under the pressure of external forces they could not oppose. About a century before the middle of the millennium, bands of Indo-European invaders came from the Central Asian plains and swept through Western Asia and they were riding fast two-wheeled chariots powered by horses, a system of weaponry developed earlier in the context of plains warfare. This tool of war was unknown among the classical civilizations, Egypt and Babylonias foot soldiers were unable to defend against the invaders, in 1630 BC, the Hyksos swept into the Nile Delta, and in 1595 BC, the Hittites swept into Mesopotamia. The peoples in place were quick to adapt to the new tactics, among the great states of the time, only Babylon refrained from taking part in battles, mainly due to its new position as the worlds religious and intellectual capital. Also contributing to the changes were the Sea Peoples, ship-faring raiders of the Mediterranean, the civilizations, kingdoms and dynasties in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme The events in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme. It is difficult to pinpoint the year or even the correct century for many events of the 2nd Millennium BC. c.1700 BC–1300 BC—Palace complex in Knossos. C.1600 BC–1360 BC Egyptian domination over Canaan and Syria, in the history of the Egyptian language, the early 2nd millennium saw a transition from Old Egyptian to Middle Egyptian. As the most used form of the Ancient Egyptian language. The earliest attested Indo-European language, the Hittite language, first appears in cuneiform in the 16th century BC, Hittite is the best known and the most studied language of the extinct Anatolian branch of Indo-European languages. The first Northwest Semitic language, Ugaritic, is attested in the 14th century BC, the first fully phonemic script Proto-Canaanite developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs, becoming the Phoenician alphabet by 1200 BC. Mycenaean Greek, the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, was used on the Greek mainland, Crete, the people in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme The Canadian–American speculative fiction author S. M. Stirling has written a set in Bronze Age era, circa the 1250s BC
9.
Zoroaster
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Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, Zarathushtra Spitama or Ashu Zarathushtra, was an ancient Iranian prophet whose teachings developed into Zoroastrianism. He inaugurated a movement that became the dominant religion in Ancient Persia. He was a speaker of Old Avestan and lived in the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau. Zoroastrianism was already an old religion when first recorded, and it was the religion of Persian Empires. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, most of his life is known from the Zoroastrian texts. Zoroasters name in his language, Avestan, was probably Zaraϑuštra. His English name, Zoroaster, derives from a later Greek transcription, Zōroastrēs, as used in Xanthuss Lydiaca and this form appears subsequently in the Latin Zōroastrēs and, in later Greek orthographies, as Zōroastris. The Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of Avestan zaraϑ- with the Greek zōros, subject then to whether Zaraϑuštra derives from *Zarantuštra- or from *Zaratuštra-, several interpretations have been proposed. If Zarantuštra is the form, it may mean with old/aging camels. With angry/furious camels, from Avestan *zarant-, angry, furious, who is driving camels or who is fostering/cherishing camels, related to Avestan zarš-, to drag. Why this is not so for zaraϑuštra has not yet been determined, notwithstanding the phonetic irregularity, that Avestan zaraϑuštra with its -ϑ- was linguistically an actual form is shown by later attestations reflecting the same basis. All present-day, Iranian-language variants of his name derive from the Middle Iranian variants of Zarϑošt, there is no consensus on the dating of Zoroaster, the Avesta gives no direct information about it, while historical sources are conflicting. Many scholars like Mary Boyce used linguistic and socio-cultural evidence to place Zoroaster between 1500 and 1000 BCE, both texts are considered to have a common archaic Indo-Iranian origin. These scholars suggest that Zoroaster lived in a tribe or composed the Gathas before the 1200–1000 BCE migration by the Iranians from the steppe to the Iranian Plateau. The shortfall of the argument is the comparison, and the archaic language of Gathas does not necessarily indicate time difference. Other scholars propose a period between 7th and 6th century, for example, c, the latest possible date is the mid 6th century, at the time of Achaemenid Empires Darius I, or his predecessor Cyrus the Great. However, in the Avesta it should not be ignored that Vishtaspas son became the ruler of the Persian Empire, the most likely conclusion is that Darius Is father was named in honor of the Zoroastrian patron, indicating probable Zoroastrian faith by Arsames. e. This belief is recorded by Diogenes Laërtius, and variant readings could place it six hundred years before Xerxes I, however, Diogenes also mentions Hermodorus belief that Zoroaster lived five thousand years before the Trojan War, which would mean he lived around 6200 BCE
10.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
11.
Persian people
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The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
12.
Calendar
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A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, a date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a record of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a calendar or a partly or fully chronological list of documents. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. The most common type of calendar was the lunisolar calendar. Latin calendarium meant account book, register, the Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century. The course of the Sun and the Moon are the most evident forms of timekeeping, nevertheless, the Roman calendar contained very ancient remnants of a pre-Etruscan 10-month solar year. The first recorded calendars date to the Bronze Age, dependent on the development of writing in the Ancient Near East, a larger number of calendar systems of the Ancient Near East becomes accessible in the Iron Age, based on the Babylonian calendar. This includes the calendar of the Persian Empire, which in turn gave rise to the Zoroastrian calendar as well as the Hebrew calendar, calendars in antiquity were lunisolar, depending on the introduction of intercalary months to align the solar and the lunar years. This was mostly based on observation, but there may have been attempts to model the pattern of intercalation algorithmically. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the new moon but simply followed an algorithm of introducing a leap day every four years. This created a dissociation of the month from the lunation. The Islamic calendar is based on the prohibition of intercalation by Muhammad and this resulted in an observationally based lunar calendar that shifts relative to the seasons of the solar year. The first calendar reform of the modern era was the Gregorian calendar. Such ideas are mooted from time to time but have failed to gain traction because of the loss of continuity, massive upheaval in implementation, a full calendar system has a different calendar date for every day. Thus the week cycle is by not a full calendar system. The simplest calendar system just counts time periods from a reference date and this applies for the Julian day or Unix Time
13.
Lunar calendar
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A lunar calendar is a calendar based upon cycles of the Moons phases, in contrast to solar calendars based solely upon the solar year. A purely lunar calendar is also distinguished from lunisolar calendars whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the year through some process of intercalation. The details of when months begin varies from calendar to calendar, with using new, full, or crescent moons. Because each lunation is a less than 29 days,12 hours,44 minutes. Such holidays include Ramadan, the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian New Year, the Nepali New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chuseok, Loi Krathong, and Diwali. The earliest known lunar calendar was found at Warren Field in Scotland and has dated to c. 8000 BC. Some scholars argue for lunar calendars still further back—Rappenglück in the marks on a c. 17, 000-year-old cave painting at Lascaux and Marshack in the marks on a c. 27, most calendars referred to as lunar calendars are in fact lunisolar calendars. Their months are based on observations of the cycle, with intercalation being used to bring them into general agreement with the solar year. The solar civic calendar of ancient Egypt showed traces of its origin in the lunar calendar. Present-day lunisolar calendars include the Chinese, Hindu, and Thai calendars, synodic months are 29 or 30 days in length, making a lunar year of 12 months about 11 days shorter than a solar year. Some lunar calendars do not use intercalation, such as most Islamic calendars, for those that do, such as the Hebrew calendar, the most common form of intercalation is to add an additional month every second or third year. Some lunisolar calendars are also calibrated by annual natural events which are affected by lunar cycles as well as the solar cycle, an example of this is the lunar calendar of the Banks Islands, which includes three months in which the edible palolo worm mass on the beaches. These events occur at the last quarter of the lunar month, lunar and lunisolar calendars differ as to which day is the first day of the month. In some lunisolar calendars, such as the Chinese calendar, the first day of a month is the day when a new moon occurs in a particular time zone. In others, such as some Hindu calendars, each month begins on the day after the moon or the new moon. Others were based in the past on the first sighting of a lunar crescent, the length of each lunar cycle varies slightly from the average value. In addition, observations are subject to uncertainty and weather conditions, thus to avoid uncertainty about the calendar, there have been attempts to create fixed arithmetical rules to determine the start of each calendar month. The average length of the month is 29.530589 days
14.
Lunisolar calendar
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A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. As with all calendars which divide the year into months there is a requirement that the year have a whole number of months. In this case ordinary years consist of twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, also, some of the ancient pre-Islamic calendars in south Arabia followed a lunisolar system. The Chinese, Coligny and Hebrew lunisolar calendars track more or less the tropical year whereas the Buddhist, therefore, the first three give an idea of the seasons whereas the last two give an idea of the position among the constellations of the full moon. The Tibetan calendar was influenced by both the Chinese and Hindu calendars, the Germanic peoples also used a lunisolar calendar before their conversion to Christianity. The Metonic cycle, used in the Hebrew calendar and the Julian and Gregorian ecclesiastical calendars, the classic Metonic cycle can be reproduced by assigning an initial epact value of 1 to the last year of the cycle and incrementing by 11 each year. Between the last year of one cycle and the first year of the next the increment is 12 and this adjustment, the saltus lunae, causes the epacts to repeat every 19 years. When the epact goes above 29 an intercalary month is added and 30 is subtracted, the intercalary years are numbers 3,6,8,11,14,17 and 19. Both the Hebrew calendar and the Julian calendar use this sequence, the Buddhist and Hebrew calendars restrict the leap month to a single month of the year, the number of common months between leap months is, therefore, usually 36, but occasionally only 24 months. An alternative way of dealing with the fact that a year does not contain an integer number of months is by including uncounted time in the year that does not belong to any month. Some Coast Salish peoples used a calendar of this kind, for instance, the Chehalis began their count of lunar months from the arrival of spawning chinook salmon, and counted 10 months, leaving an uncounted period until the next chinook salmon run. The Gregorian calendar has a calendar, which is used to determine the date of Easter. The rules are in the Computus, Hebrew calendar Jain calendar Hindu calendar Computus Easter rule for Julian and Gregorian calendars. Lunisolar calendar year 2014 Lunisolar Calendar Calendar studies Model of lunisolar calendar based on observation of the sun and moon position
15.
Culture of Iran
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The culture of Iran or culture of Persia is one of the oldest in the world. Thus an eclectic cultural elasticity has been said to be one of the key defining characteristics of the Persian spirit, furthermore, Irans culture has manifested itself in several facets throughout the history of Iran as well as the Caucasus, Central Asia, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. They are not the same and the cultures of the peoples of Greater Persia are the focus of this article, Iran has one of the richest art heritages in world history and encompasses many disciplines including architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking and stonemasonry. There is also a very vibrant Iranian modern and contemporary art scene, Iranian art has gone through numerous phases. The unique aesthetics of Iran is evident from the Achaemenid reliefs in Persepolis to the paintings of Bishapur. The Islamic era brought drastic changes to the styles and practice of the arts, the Qajarid era was the last stage of classical Persian art, before modernism was imported and suffused into elements of traditionalist schools of aesthetics. Several languages are spoken in different regions of Iran, the predominant language and national language is Persian, which is spoken across the country. Smaller languages spread in other regions notably include Talysh, Georgian, Armenian, Assyrian, Persian literature inspired Goethe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many others, and it has been often dubbed as a most worthy language to serve as a conduit for poetry. Dialects of Persian are sporadically spoken throughout the region from China to Syria to Russia, Zoroastrianism was the national faith of Iran for more than a millennium before the Arab conquest. It has had an influence on Iranian philosophy, culture. Followers of the Bahai faith comprise the largest non-Muslim minority in Iran, followers of the Bahai faith are scattered throughout small communities in Iran, although there seems to be a large population of people who follow the Bahai faith in Tehran. Most of the Bahai are of Persian descent, although there seem to be many among the Azerbaijani, thus, Christians that live in Iran are primarily descendants of indigenous Christians that were converted during the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to Christianity and Judaism, Zoroastrianism is another officially recognized religion in Iran, in addition, although there have been isolated incidences of prejudice against Zoroastrians, most followers of this faith have not been persecuted for being followers of this faith. The Persian year begins in the vernal equinox, if the astronomical vernal equinox comes before noon, if the equinox falls after noon, then the next day is the official first day of the Persian year. The Persian Calendar, which is the calendar of Iran, is a solar calendar with a starting point that is the same as the Islamic calendar. According to the Iran Labor Code, Friday is the day of rest. Government official working hours are from Saturday to Wednesday, additional holidays include The Anniversary of the Uprising Against the Shah, Ashoura, Victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Sizdah-Bedar—Public Outing Day to end Nowrooz, and Islamic Republic Day. There are two stages in a wedding ritual in Iran
16.
Cyrus the Great
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Cyrus II of Persia, commonly known as Cyrus the Great and also called Cyrus the Elder by the Greeks, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. From the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, under his successors, the empire eventually stretched at its maximum extent from parts of the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east. His regal titles in full were The Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, the reign of Cyrus the Great lasted between 29 and 31 years. Cyrus built his empire by conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire, either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia, which resulted in major campaigns that were described as having brought into subjection every nation without exception. Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he died in battle. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who managed to add to the empire by conquering Egypt, Nubia, Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. This became a successful model for centralized administration and establishing a government working to the advantage. In fact, the administration of the empire through satraps and the principle of forming a government at Pasargadae were the works of Cyrus. Cyrus the Great is also recognized for his achievements in human rights, politics. Having originated from Persis, roughly corresponding to the modern Iranian province of Fars and this view has been criticized by some historians as a misunderstanding of the Cylinders generic nature as a traditional statement that new monarchs make at the beginning of their reign. The name Cyrus is a Latinized form derived from the Greek Κῦρος, Kỹros, the name and its meaning has been recorded in ancient inscriptions in different languages. This may also point to a relationship to the mythological first king of Persia, Jamshid. Karl Hoffmann has suggested a translation based on the meaning of an Indo-European-root to humiliate, in the Persian language and especially in Iran, Cyruss name is spelled as کوروش. In the Bible, he is known as Koresh, the Persian domination and kingdom in the Iranian plateau started by an extension of the Achaemenid dynasty, who expanded their earlier domination possibly from the 9th century BC onward. The eponymous founder of dynasty was Achaemenes. Achaemenids are descendants of Achaemenes as Darius the Great, the king of the dynasty, traces his genealogy to him. Ancient documents mention that Teispes had a son called Cyrus I, Cyrus I had a full brother whose name is recorded as Ariaramnes. In 600 BC, Cyrus I was succeeded by his son, Cambyses I, Cyrus the Great was a son of Cambyses I, who named his son after his father, Cyrus I
17.
Pastoral
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A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, a pastoral is a work of this genre, also known as bucolic, from the Greek βουκολικόν, from βουκόλος, meaning a cowherd. Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques to place the life into a simple one. Thus, pastoral as a mode occurs in many types of literature as well as genres, terry Gifford, a prominent literary theorist, defines pastoral in three ways in his critical book Pastoral. The first way emphasizes the historical perspective of the pastoral in which authors recognize and discuss life in the country. This is summed up by Leo Marx with the phrase No shepherd, the second type of the pastoral is literature that describes the country with an implicit or explicit contrast to the urban. The third type of pastoral depicts the life with derogative classifications. Hesiods Works and Days presents a golden age when people lived together in harmony with nature and this Golden Age shows that even before Alexandria, ancient Greeks had sentiments of an ideal pastoral life that they had already lost. This is the first example of literature that has pastoral sentiments, ovids Metamorphoses is much like the Works and Days with the description of ages but with more ages to discuss and less emphasis on the gods and their punishments. In this artificially constructed world, nature acts as the main punisher, another example of this perfect relationship between man and nature is evident in the encounter of a shepherd and a goatherd who meet in the pastures in Theocritus poem Idylls 1. Traditionally, pastoral refers to the lives of herdsmen in a romanticized, exaggerated, the pastoral life is usually characterized as being closer to the Golden age than the rest of human life. The setting is a Locus Amoenus, or a place in nature. An example of the use of the genre is the poem by the 15th-century Scottish makar Robert Henryson Robene and Makyne which also contains the conflicted emotions often present in the genre. There will we sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, the Passionate Shepherd to His Love exhibits the concept of Giffords second definition of pastoral. The speaker of the poem, who is the titled shepherd and this can be seen in the listed items, lined slippers, purest gold, silver dishes, and ivory table. The speaker takes on a point of view with his love. Pastoral shepherds and maidens usually have Greek names like Corydon or Philomela and this makes them available for embodying perpetual erotic fantasies. The shepherds spend their time chasing pretty girls — or, at least in the Greek and Roman versions, Pastoral literature continued after Hesiod with the poetry of the Hellenistic Greek Theocritus, several of whose Idylls are set in the countryside and involve dialogues between herdsmen
18.
Julian calendar
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The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC, by edict, the Julian calendar gains against the mean tropical year at the rate of one day in 128 years. For the Gregorian the figure is one day in 3,030 years, the difference in the average length of the year between Julian and Gregorian is 0. 002%. The Julian calendar has a year of 365 days divided into 12 months. A leap day is added to February every four years, the Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. It was intended to approximate the tropical year, as a result, the calendar year gains about three days every four centuries compared to observed equinox times and the seasons. This discrepancy was corrected by the Gregorian reform of 1582, consequently, the Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Egypt converted on 20 December 1874/1 January 1875, turkey switched on 16 February/1 March 1917. Russia changed on 1/14 February 1918, Greece made the change for civil purposes on 16 February/1 March 1923 - the national day, which was a religious holiday, was to remain on the old calendar. Most Christian denominations in the west and areas evangelised by western churches have replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian as the basis for their liturgical calendars. However, most branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church still use the Julian calendar for calculating the date of Easter, some Orthodox churches have adopted the Revised Julian calendar for the observance of fixed feasts, while other Orthodox churches retain the Julian calendar for all purposes. The Julian calendar is used by the Berbers of the Maghreb in the form of the Berber calendar. In the form of the Alexandrian calendar, it is the basis for the Ethiopian calendar, during the changeover between calendars and for some time afterwards, dual dating was used in documents and gave the date according to both systems. In contemporary as well as texts that describe events during the period of change. The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, in addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, some say the mensis intercalaris always had 27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia. According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, alternately 377 and 378 days long. In this system, the average Roman year would have had 366 1⁄4 days over four years, Macrobius describes a further refinement whereby, in one 8-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days
19.
Old Persian
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The Old Persian language is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages. Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, recent research into the vast Persepolis Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago have unearthed Old Persian tablets. This new text shows that the Old Persian language was a language in use for practical recording. As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions and it is an Iranian language and as such a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The oldest known written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscriptions. Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages which is attested in original texts, the oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. Their language, Old Persian, became the language of the Achaemenid kings. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash are first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III. The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. Old Persian belongs to the Iranian language family which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, the common ancestors of Indo-Iranians came from Central Asia sometime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The former are the languages in that group which have left written original texts while Median is known mostly from loanwords in Old Persian. Old Persian subsequently evolved into Middle Persian, which is in turn the ancestor of New Persian. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and modern, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Pashto, Old, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same language at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars and is differentiated by dialectical features, Middle Persian, also sometimes called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of old Persian, and was used as the written official language of the country. Comparison of the evolution at each stage of the shows great simplification in grammar. However, New Persian is a descendent of Middle and Old Persian. Old Persian presumably has a Median language substrate, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were peculiar to Old Persian. Median forms are only in personal or geographical names and some are typically from religious vocabulary
20.
Elamite language
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Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites. Elamite was a used in present-day south-western Iran from 2800 to 550 BC. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great, Elamite has no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate. The lack of established relatives is one reason that interpretation of the language is difficult, Elamite cuneiform, adapted from Akkadian cuneiform, was used from ca.2500 to 331 BC. Elamite cuneiform was largely a syllabary of some 130 glyphs at any one time and retained only a few logograms from Akkadian, but over time, the complete corpus of Elamite cuneiform consists of c.20 thousand tablets and fragments. The majority belong to the Achaemenid era, and contain primarily economic records, two earlier scripts of the area remain undeciphered but plausibly have encoded Elamite, Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. It was used during a period of time, clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. It is thought to have developed from early cuneiform and consists of more than 1,000 signs and it is thought to be largely logographic. Linear Elamite is attested in a few monumental inscriptions and it is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, but it cannot be proven. Linear Elamite was used for a brief period of time during the last quarter of the third millennium BC. Elamite was a language, and Elamite grammar was characterized by a well-developed. Animate nouns had separate markers for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, documents from the Old Elamite and early Neo-Elamite stages are rather scarce. Neo-Elamite can be regarded as a transition between Middle and Achaemenid Elamite, with respect to language structure, because of the limitations of the languages scripts, phonology is not well understood. As for the vowels, Elamite had at least /a/, /i/, and /u/ and may also have had an /e/, roots are generally of the forms CV, VC, VCV and, more rarely, CVCCV. Elamite is agglutinative, and predominantly suffixing, the inanimate 3rd singular -me forms abstracts. In noun phrases and pronoun phrases, the suffixes referring to the head are appended to the modifier, sometimes the suffix is preserved on the head as well. g. The suffix -na, which originated from the inanimate agreement suffix -n followed by the nominalizing particle -a. The personal pronouns distinguish nominative and accusative case forms and they are as follows, In general, no special possessive pronouns are needed in view of the construction with the noun class suffixes
21.
Mithra
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Mithra is the Zoroastrian angelic Divinity of Covenant and Oath. In addition to being the Divinity of Contracts, Mithra is also a figure, an all-seeing Protector of Truth, and the Guardian of Cattle. The Romans attributed their Mithraic mysteries to Persian sources relating to Mithra, since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities, and the mysteries are now considered a distinct Roman product formed, at most, by Roman perceptions of Zoroastrian ideas. Together with the Vedic common noun mitra, the Avestan common noun miθra derives from proto-Indo-Iranian *mitra, from the root mi- to bind, thus, etymologically mitra/miθra means that which causes binding, preserved in the Avestan word for Covenant, Contract, Oath. In Middle Iranian languages, miθra became mihr, from which New Persian مهر mihr, Wanetsi and Wazirwola mērə/myer, as a member of the Iranian ahuric triad, a feature that only Ahura Mazda and Ahura Berezaiti also have, Mithra is an exalted figure. Together with Rashnu Justice and Sraosha Obedience, Mithra is one of the three judges at the Chinvat Bridge, the Bridge of Separation that all Souls must cross, unlike Sraosha, Mithra is not however a Psychopomp, a guide of souls to the place of the dead. Should the Good Thoughts, Words and Deeds outweigh the Bad, as the Divinity of Contract, Mithra is undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting. Mithra is additionally the protector of cattle, and his epithet is of Wide Pastures. He is Guardian of the waters and ensures that those pastures receive enough of it, the lack of Mithras presence in the texts was once a cause of some consternation amongst Iranists. An often repeated speculation of the first half of the 20th century was that the lack of any mention of Mithra in these texts implied that Zoroaster had rejected Mithra and this ex silentio speculation is no longer followed. The Avestan Hymn to Mithra is the longest, and one of the best preserved, Mithra is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta scriptures as Mithra of Wide Pastures, of the Thousand Ears, and of the Myriad Eyes, the Lofty, and the Everlasting. We sacrifice to Mithra, The Lord of all countries, Whom Ahura Mazda created the most glorious, Of the Supernatural Yazads. So may there come to us for Aid, Both Mithra and Ahura, Mithra is invoked in the inscriptions of two Achaemenid emperors. Boyce suggests that the reason for this was that Artaxerxes had chosen Anahita, Mithra is invoked again in the single known inscription of Artaxerxes III, A3Pa, found at Persepolis. In that inscription, that emperor too appeals to Ahuramazda and the God Mithra preserve me, my country, in the Zoroastrian calendar, the sixteenth day of the month and the seventh month of the year are dedicated to, and under the protection of, Mithra. The day on which the day-name and month-name dedications intersect is dedicated to the divinity of that day/month, in the case of Mithra, this was Jashan-e Mihragan, or just Mihragan in short. In Zoroastrian scripture, Mithra is distinct from the divinity of the Sun, however, in Zoroastrian tradition, Mithra evolved from being an all-seeing figure into a divinity co-identified with the Sun itself, effectively taking over Hvare. khshaetas role. How or when or why this occurred is uncertain, but it is attributed to conflation with Babylonian Shamash and/or Greek Apollo
22.
Zoroastrian calendar
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This article treats the reckoning of days, months and years in the calendar used by adherents of the Zoroastrian faith. Zoroastrian religious festivals are discussed elsewhere, but have a relationship to Nawruz. Three distinct versions of the calendar are currently in use by different Zoroastrian communities, english spellings follow this recommended usage. The forerunner of all modern Zoroastrian calendars is the used to reckon dates in the Persian Empire. In 539 BC, Persias rulers conquered Babylon, and soon afterwards – at least by the 4th century BC – adopted the Babylonian luni-solar calendar for civil purposes, the earliest Zoroastrian calendar follows the Babylonian in relating the seventh and other days of the month to Ahura Mazda. This Avestan calendar of 360 days required regular correction to keep it synchronised with the solar year, older research suggests the first intercalation took place in 309 BC. They therefore counted years of the era of Alexander, the Parthians, who succeeded the Seleucids, continued the Seleucid/Hellenic tradition. Mary Boyce has observed that contemporary scholars are divided on whether this 365-day calendar was in fact preceded by a 360-day calendar of Zoroastrian observances. A 365-day calendar, with largely identical to the Egyptian calendar, was introduced shortly after the conquest of Egypt by the Achaemenid ruler Cambyses. The five additional days were inserted after the twelfth month and these five days were named Gatha or Gah days, after the ancient Avesta hymns of the same name. In AD224, when the Babylonian calendar was replaced by the Zoroastrian,1 Frawardin, the older custom of counting regnal years from the monarchs coronation was reinstated. At this point the calendar was realigned with the seasons by delaying the epagemonai by eight months and this caused confusion, since the new year now fell five days earlier than before, and some people continued to observe the old date. After 46 years, with 1 Frawardin now on 19 September, another reform was implemented by Ardashirs grandson Hormazd I. In later years the population had observed the Gatha days, hormazds reform was to link the popular and official observance dates to form continual six-day feasts. Nawruz was an exception, the first and the days of the month were celebrated as different occasions. Lesser Nawruz was observed on 1 Frawardin,6 Frawardin became Greater Nawruz, a day of special festivity. Mary Boyce has argued that sometime between AD399 and AD518 the six-day festivals were compressed to five days, the major feasts, or gahambars, of contemporary Zoroastrian practice, are still kept as five-day observances today. By the reign of Yazdegird III, the celebrations were again somewhat adrift with respect to their proper seasons
23.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
24.
Yazata
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Yazata is the Avestan language word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying a divinity. The yazatas collectively are the powers under Ohrmuzd, who is the greatest of the yazatas. Yazata is an Avestan language passive adjectival participle derived from yaz-, to worship, to honor, the word yasna – worship, sacrifice, oblation, prayer – comes from the same root. A yaza+ ta is accordingly a being worthy of worship, an object of worship or a holy being, as the stem form, yazata- has the inflected nominative forms yazatō, pl. yazatåŋhō. These forms reflect Proto-Iranian *yazatah and pl. *yazatāhah, in Middle Persian the term became yazad or yazd, pl. yazdān, continuing in New Persian as izad. The term yazata is used in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism. In these hymns, yazata is used as a generic, applied to Ahura Mazda as well as to the divine sparks, that in later tradition are the Amesha Spentas. In the Gathas, the yazatas are effectively what the daevas are not, that is, in the Younger Avesta, the yazatas are unambiguously divine, with divine powers but performing mundane tasks such as serving as charioteers for other yazatas. Several yazatas are given anthropomorphic attributes, such as cradling a mace or bearing a crown upon their heads, relatively certain however is that the day-name dedications predate the Avestas Siroza, which contain explicit references to the yazatas as protectors/guardians of their respective days of the month. The 9th–12th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition observe the yazatas in much the way as the hymns of the Younger Avesta. In addition, in roles that are alluded to in scripture. For instance, Aredvi Sura Anahita is both a divinity of the waters as well as a rushing river that encircles the earth. The blockage is removed by Verethragna, and Tishtrya gathers up the waters, in stories with eschatological significance, Sraosha, Mithra, and Rashnu are guardians of the Chinvat bridge, the bridge of the separator, across which all souls must pass. The Amesha Spentas in turn had hamkars assistants or cooperators, each a caretaker of one facet of creation, in both tradition and scripture, the terms Amesha Spenta and yazata are sometimes used interchangeably. In general, however, Amesha Spenta signifies the six divine sparks. In tradition, yazata is the first of the 101 epithets of Ahura Mazda, the word also came to be applied to Zoroaster, but Zoroastrians to this day remain sharply critical of any attempts to deify the prophet. In the 1860s and 1870s, the linguist Martin Haug interpreted Zoroastrian scripture in Christian terms, in this scheme, the Amesha Spentas are the arch-angel retinue of Ahura Mazda, with the hamkars as the supporting host of lesser angels. At the time, Zoroastrianism lacked theologians of its own, in this situation, Haugs counter-interpretation came as a welcome relief, and was gratefully accepted as legitimate
25.
Ahura Mazda
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Ahura Mazda is the Avestan name for the creator and sole God of Zoroastrianism, the old Iranian religion which spread across Asia predating Christianity. Ahura Mazda is described as the highest spirit of worship in Zoroastrianism, the literal meaning of the word Ahura is mighty or lord and Mazda is wisdom. Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period under Darius Is Behistun Inscription, until Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was worshipped and invoked alone. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was invoked in a triad, with Mithra, images of Ahura Mazda began in the Parthian period, but were stopped and replaced with stone carved figures in the Sassanid period. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhās, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European *mn̩sdʰeh₁, literally meaning placing ones mind, the name was rendered as Ahuramazda during the Achaemenid era, Hormazd during the Parthian era, and Ohrmazd was used during the Sassanian era. The name may be attested on cuneiform tablets of Assyrian Assurbanipal, in the form Assara Mazaš, even though Ahura Mazda was a spirit in the Old Iranian religion, he had not yet been given the title of uncreated spirit. This title was given by Zoroaster, who proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the spirit, wholly wise, benevolent and good, as well as the creator. As Ahura Mazda is described as the creator and upholder of Asha, he is a supporter and guardian of justice, as a result of this vision, Zoroaster felt that he was chosen to spread and preach the religion. He stated that source of all goodness was the only Ahura worthy of the highest worship. He further stated that Ahura Mazda created spirits known as yazatas to aid him, Zoroaster proclaimed that all of the Iranian daevas were bad spirits and deserved no worship. These bad spirits were created by Angra Mainyu, the hostile, the existence of Angra Mainyu was the source of all sin and misery in the universe. Zoroaster claimed that Ahura Mazda was not an omnipotent God, nonetheless, Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyus superior, not his equal. Angra Mainyu and his daevas which attempt to attract humans away from the path of righteousness would eventually be destroyed, whether the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians is a matter of much debate. However, it is known that the Achaemenids were worshipers of Ahura Mazda, the representation and invocation of Ahura Mazda can be seen on royal inscriptions written by Achaemenid kings. The most notable of all the inscriptions is the Behistun Inscription written by Darius I which contains references to Ahura Mazda. An inscription written in Greek was found in a late Achaemenid temple at Persepolis which invoked Ahura Mazda, on the Elamite Persepolis Fortification Tablet 377, Ahura Mazda is invoked along with Mithra and Voruna. Artaxerxes III makes this invocation to the three again in his reign
26.
Amesha Spenta
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Significantly more common than the non-specific meaning of Amesha Spenta is a restrictive use of the term to refer to the great six divine sparks of Ahura Mazda. In Zoroastrian tradition, these are the first six emanations of the noncreated Creator, the expression Amesha Spenta does not occur in the Gathas, but it was probably coined by Zoroaster himself. Spenta is a word of his revelation, meaning furthering, strengthening, bounteous. The oldest attested use of the term is in Yasna 39.3, like all other verses of the Yasna Haptanghaiti, Yasna 39.3 is also in Gathic Avestan and is approximately as old as the hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. The divine sparks that appear in the Gathic Yasna 47, if they appear at all, they do not necessarily appear immediately adjacent to the noun. But in later tradition, these adjectives are integral to the names themselves, while Vohu Manah, Aša Vahišta, and Xšaθra Vairya are consistently of neuter gender in Avestan grammar, in tradition they are considered masculine. Armaiti, Haurvatāt, and Amərətāt are invariably feminine, in the Gathas, each Amesha Spenta represents a good moral quality that mortals should strive to obtain. Thus, the doctrine of the six is that through good thoughts, words. Not evident in the Gathas and first appearing in the Younger Avesta are the oppositions of haurvatāt- wholeness to taršna- thirst and these latter assignments reflect Haurvatats identification with water and Ameretats identification with plants. In the Gathas, aša/arta is the most evident of the six, in the 238 verses of these hymns, aša-/arta- appears 157 times. Of the other concepts, only vohumanah- appears nearly as often, in comparison, the remaining four of the great sextet appear only 121 times altogether, xšaθra-,56 times, armaiti-,40, amərətāt-,14, haurvatāt-,11 times. In the context of Zoroastrian view of creation, the group of the Amesha Spenta is extended to include Ahura Mazda, however, in most scholastic texts, an unqualified referral to the Amesha Spenta is usually understood to include only great six. In Yasna 44.7,31.3, and 51.7 and it is also through this Bounteous Force, Creative Emanation, or Holy Spirit that Ahura Mazda is immanent in humankind, and how the Creator interacts with the world. The doctrine also has a dimension, in that each of the heptad is linked to one of the seven creations. These physical associations are only alluded to in the Gathas>, a systematic association is only present in later middle Persian texts, where each of the seven is listed with its special domain, Ahura Mazda → Middle Persian Ohrmazd is the highest spirit. This anomaly is explained in modern scholarship by the fact that, in Stone Age cosmogony, the sky was considered to be the first of the creations and this is also reflected in Zoroasters revelation, where the sky is of the hardest stone. Later, with the event of bronze and then iron tools, this sky evolved to being of crystal, in due course, Xšaθras association with a stony firmament was eclipsed by the association with a metallic sky, and thence to metals in general. In non-specific usage, the term Amesha Spenta denotes all the divinities that furthered or strengthened creation and all that are bounteous and it not only includes the ahuras, but also all the other divinities that are alluded to in these texts
27.
Tishtrya
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Tishtrya or Roozahang is the Avestan language name of a Zoroastrian benevolent divinity associated with life-bringing rainfall and fertility. Tishtrya is Tir in Middle- and Modern Persian, as has been judged from the archaic context in which Tishtrya appears in the texts of the Avesta, the divinity/concept is almost certainly of Indo-Iranian origin. In a hymn of the Avesta, Tishtrya is involved in a struggle against the drought-bringing demon Apaosha. According to the myth, in the form of a white horse the god did battle with the demon who. Apaosa soon gained the hand over Tishtrya, who was weakened from the lack of sufficient prayers. The yazata proceeded to call upon the Creator Ahura Mazda, who then intervened by offering a sacrifice to the overwhelmed god. Infused with the power brought by this sacrifice, Tishtrya was able to overcome Apaosa and this story serves to underscore the importance of votive offerings and sacrifice in religious tradition. In the Zoroastrian religious calendar, the 13th day of the month and the 4th month of the year are dedicated to Tishtrya/Tir, in the Iranian civil calendar, which inherits its month names from the Zoroastrian calendar, the 4th month is likewise named Tir. During the Achaemenid period, Tishtrya was conflated with Semitic Nabu-*Tiri, the Tiregan festival, previously associated with *Tiri, was likewise transferred to Tishtrya. During the Hellenic period, Tishtrya came to be associated with Pythian Apollo, patron of Delphi, the other names of Tishtrya in Persian is Roozahang, Shabahang and Varahang. Roozahang or Tishtrya is the God of Rainfall and it is a white, bright and afar star, bright and afar and its nature is water. A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. I, a History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. II. Hinnells, John R. Library of the Worlds Myths and Legends, Persian Mythology
28.
Sraosha
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‹See Tfd› Sraosha is the Avestan name of the Zoroastrian yazata of Obedience or Observance, which is also the literal meaning of his name. In the Middle Persian commentaries of the 9th-12th centuries, the divinity appears as Srosh and this form appears in many variants in New Persian as well, for example سروش, Sorūsh. Unlike many of the other Yazatas, Sraosha is already attested in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. In these earliest texts, Sraosha is routinely associated with the Amesha Spentas, in the Gathas, Sraoshas primary function is to propagate the religion of Ahura Mazda to humanity, as Sraosha himself learned it from Ahura Mazda. This is only alluded to in these old verses but is only properly developed in later texts. In the ethical goals of Zoroastrianism as expressed in Yasna 33.14 and this changes in Zoroastrian tradition, where Sraosha is identified with good words. In Yasna 33.5, the poet speaks of Sraosha as the greatest of all at the renovation of the world. In 50. 4-5, the sees the path of Sraosha as In 43.46. In 44.16, Sraosha and Vohu Manah are said to be brought to all humankind, Sraosha has two yashts dedicated to him. One of these is Yasna 56-57, which is part of the primary Zoroastrian act of adoration, Yasna 56-57 is a hidden yasht in that those verses describe a devotees relationship with Sraosha but do not directly address him. The other hymn to the divinity is Yasht 11, which is an invocation of Sraosha. Yasht 11 - like the other direct Yashts also - is not part of the liturgy of the Avesta proper, Yasht 11 has survived in a fragment of the Hadhokht Nask, which is today part of the Khordeh Avesta, the little Avesta. In Yasna 56-57, Sraosha is variously described as mighty, the word of reason. Sraosha possesses Truth and is stately and he is said to have been the first in all of creation to adore Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas. He recited five holy verses in order to favor the great sextet, and he returned victorious from his battles with evil, which allowed the various aspects of creation to populate the world. Sraosha wanders about the teaching the religion of Mazda. Sraosha is frequently described as the lord of ritual and he propitiates haoma with sacrifice, in Yasht 11, mankind lives under Sraoshas constant guardianship. He is not interrupted by sleep in his constant vigil in which he wields his weapons against the druj, Sraosha teaches the word of Ahura Mazda to mankind
29.
Rashnu
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Rashnu is the Avestan language name of the Zoroastrian yazata of justice. Together with Mithra and Sraosha, Rashnu is one of the three judges who pass judgment on the souls of people after death, rashnus standard appellation is the very straight. In the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian account of creation finished in the 11th or 12th century, Rashnu is identified as an assistant of the Amesha Spenta Ameretat, in a subsequent passage, Rashnu is described as the essence of truth that prevents the daevas from destroying material Creation. Rashnu adjudges even the souls of men and women as to bad deeds, as one says, Rashnu shall not see thither the rank of the judge who delivers false judgment. In the Avestan Dahman Afrin, Rashnu is invoked in an address to Ameretat, according to the Denkard, the Duwasrud Nask - a legal manual now lost - contained passages extolling the supremacy of Rashnu. In the Siroza the very straight Rashnu, augments the world and is the true-spoken speech that furthers the world. The 18th day of month in the Zoroastrian calendar is dedicated to Rashnu. The Counsels of Adarbad Mahraspandan, a Sassanid-era text, notes that on the 18th day life is merry
30.
Fravashi
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Fravashi is the Avestan language term for the Zoroastrian concept of a personal spirit of an individual, whether dead, living, and yet-unborn. The fravashi of an individual sends out the urvan into the world to fight the battle of good versus evil. In the 9/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition, Avestan fravashi continues as Middle Persian fravard, fravahr, the last days of a year, called frawardigan, are dedicated to the fravashis. The first month of the year as well as the 19th day of each month are considered under the protection of, and named after, the winged-disc symbol of Zoroastrianism is traditionally interpreted as a depiction of a fravashi. The word fravashi is commonly perceived to have var- to choose, from reconstructed *fravarti, fravashi could then mean one who has been selected. The same root, in the sense of to choose/profess a faith, is found in the word fravarane, one interpretation considers a derivation from vart- turn hence turning away, departing, death. The Epistles of Zadspram, a 10th century exegetical work, derives fravashi from fra-vaxsh to grow forth, like most other Zoroastrian yazatas, the fravashis are not mentioned in the Gathas. The earliest mention of them is in the Old Avestan Yasna Haptanghaiti which includes an invocation of the fravashis of the righteous. In chapter 57 of the Yasna, the fravashis are responsible for the course of the sun, moon, and stars, and in nurturing waters and plants, and protecting the unborn in the womb. Yasht 13 is one of the eight great yashts, and at 158 verses the longest text in the collection and it is also the second-most frequently recited Yasht. Several different authors contributed to the hymn, and its quality is uneven, while some verses are rich in traditional poetic phrases. The frequently repeated kshnuman of Yasht 13 is We worship the good, strong, moreover, Mazda is presented as acknowledging that without the help of the fravashis, cattle and men would have been lost to Angra Mainyu. This declaration is wholly unorthodox, and unsupported by any other text, verses 14-15, as also several other verses scattered through the text, describe how the fravashis continue to sustain the material world and mankind in the post-creation phase of the world. Verses 16-17, as several other later verses, celebrate their military prowess and assistance in battle. Verse 20 includes an injunction to memorize their invocation, so as to be able to call on them in times of need, in 13. 49-52, the hymn turns to the function of the fravashis in relation to the dead. There, the fravashis of the dead are said to return to their homes during the last days of the year, hoping to be worshipped and receive gifts, in exchange for which they bless those who live there. 13. 65-68, the fravashi are associated with prosperity, and annually strive to ensure that family, settlement, tribe, and country has rain. Verses 149 and 155 are likewise related to the urvan of the dead, and while they are said to have martial prowess in some passages, elsewhere, they are co-eval with the relatively helpless urvan
31.
Verethragna
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Verethragna is an Avestan language neuter noun literally meaning smiting of resistance. Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the hypostasis of victory, the neuter noun verethragna is related to Avestan verethra, obstacle and verethragnan, victorious. In Zoroastrian Middle Persian, Verethragna became Warahran, from which Vahram, Vehram, Bahram, Behram, the once-followed theory that Verethragna had Indo-Iranian origins is no longer followed today. The name and, to some extent, the deity has correspondences in Armenian Vahagn and Vram, Buddhist Sogdian Wshn, Manichaen Parthian Wryhrm, Yasht 14, the hymn of praise to Verethregna, though ill-preserved, contains what seem very archaic elements. There, Verethragna is described as the most highly armed, the best equipped with might, with effervescent glory, has conquering superiority, Verethragna is not exclusively associated with military might and victory. So, for instance, he is connected with sexual potency and confers virility, has the ability to heal, many of these incarnations are also shared with other divinities, for instance, the youth, the bull and the horse are also attributed to Tishtrya. Likewise, the bird, the camel and the wind to Vayu-Vata, together with Čistā, Verethragna is a principal companion of Mithra. Several sections of the Bahram Yasht also appear in hymns dedicated to other divinities, in the Zoroastrian calendar instituted during the late Achaemenid era, the twentieth day of the month is dedicated to Bahram. In the later middle Persian texts Bahram is especially venerated as the seventh of the Amesha Spentas, in the astronomical and calendrical reforms of the Sassanids, the planet Mars was named Bahram. Zaehner attributes this to the influences of the Chaldean astral-theological system. According to Boyce, the present-day expression Atash-Behram as the name of the most sacred class of fires is a confusion of the adjectival Victorious Fire with Fire of Bahram. The former is the way it appears in Middle Persian inscriptions such as the Kartir inscription at Kabah-i Zardusht, gnoli attributes the change to natural misunderstanding abetted in Islamic times by a progressive decay in Zoroastrian priestly teaching. The only evidence of a cult appears in the first century account of Strabo, who reports, probably on authority of Nearchus and that this was Bahram/Verethragna is unlikely if, as per Strabo, he was their only god. However, the account does reveal that divinities of war were not unknown to the people who were not of the Iranian plateau, evidence for which also comes from Herodotus. Under the Seleucids and Arsacids, that is, in the Empires influenced by Hellenic culture and this syncretism is well attested in statuary and iconography, most notably in that of the inscription of Antiochus I Theos of Commagene, in which all three names occur together. That Bahram was considered the patron divinity of travelers is reflected by the life-size rock sculpture of the divinity on the main highway at Behistun. There Bahram reclines with a goblet in his hand, a club at his feet, in the early Sassanid period Bahram is still represented as the Greek Heracles. In the relief of Ardeshir I at Naqs-e Rajab III, Bahram appears as one of the two smaller figures between Ahura Mazda and the king, there, he has a lions skin in his left hand and brandishes a club in his right
32.
Vayu-Vata
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Vāyu-Vāta or Vāta-Vāyu is the Avestan language name of a dual-natured Zoroastrian divinity of the wind and of the atmosphere. The names are used independently of one another, with Vayu occurring more frequently than Vata. The entity is simultaneously angelic and demonic, that is, depending on the circumstances, either yazata - worthy of worship - or daeva, scripture frequently applies the epithet good when speaking of one or the other in a positive context. In Zurvanism, Vata-Vayu represented two facets of the quaternary Zurvan, in this arrangement, Vata-Vayu represented space while the other two facets represent time. Vayu-Vata has Indo-Iranian roots, and has the name in historical Vedic religion
33.
Daena
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Daena is a Zoroastrian concept representing insight and revelation, hence conscience or religion. Alternately, Daena is considered to be a divinity, counted among the yazatas, Daena is a feminine noun which translates to that which is seen or observed. In Zoroastrianism, An Introduction to an Ancient Faith, Peter Clark suggests that the term might also be tied to the Avestan root deh or di- to gain understanding. The Avestan language term – trisyllabic daēnā in Gathic Avestan and bisyllabic dēnā in Younger Avestan – continues into Middle Persian as dēn, for comparison, it has a Sanskrit congate dhénā which means thought, but thought in its higher and spiritual reaches. Remarkably Zen word in Zen Buddhism is also derived from dhayanā, the concept of Daena is mentioned in the Gathas, a series of seventeen hymns supposedly written by Zoroaster. Daena appears both in the Ahunavaiti Gatha and in the Ushtavaiti Gatha, where it is written that Daena is somehow affiliated with the reward that the faithful will receive in the afterlife, however, references to Daena in the Gathas are brief, leaving much ambiguity on its nature. Later Avestan writings, such as the Vendidad, describe the concept of Daena further and she is described as being finely dressed, and accompanied by dogs. Daena is the eternal Law, whose order was revealed to humanity through the Mathra-Spenta. Daena has been used to mean religion, faith, law, even as a translation for the Hindu and Buddhist term Dharma, often interpreted as duty or social order, right conduct, or virtue. The metaphor of the path of Daena is represented in Zoroastrianism by the muslin undershirt Sudra, the Good/Holy Path, and the 72-thread Kushti girdle, Dharma Dīn Dhyāna Maid of Heaven
34.
Ashi
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Not to be confused with the Bhutanese honorific title Ashi. Ashi is the Avestan language word for the Zoroastrian concept of that which is attained, as the hypostasis of reward, recompense, or capricious luck, Ashi is also a divinity in the Zoroastrian hierarchy of yazatas. Avestan ashi is an abstract noun, deriving from the root ar-, to allot, with a substantivizing -ta suffix. In the Avesta, the term implies both material and spiritual recompense, although conceptually older than Zoroastrianism, Ashi has no attested equivalent in Vedic Sanskrit. The late Middle Persian equivalent as attested in the Zoroastrian texts of the 9th-12th century is ard-, in the younger Avesta, divinified Ashi is also referred to Ashi Vanuhi or Ashi Vanghuhi, the Middle Persian equivalent of which is Ahrishwang. Ashi is also attested as a compound as Ashi Vanghuhi-Parendi. Avestan ashi is already attested in the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrianism, in these hymns, where the term occurs 17 times, ashi is still an abstract concept and is not yet the divinity that she would become in the younger Avesta. With the adjective good, ashi occurs thrice, in the Gathas, ashi is frequently identified with asha truth, so for instance in Yasna 51.10 where the poet calls truth to, to come with good reward. The idea being expressed here is a one, with truth being connected to the afterlife. This is also apparent in Yasna 43.5 where Ahura Mazda appoints reward for deed and word, bad for the bad, good reward for the good. Subject to proper conduct in life, ashi is then tied to Zoroasters concept of free will, both asha and ashi have associations with Sraosha and Vohu Manah. Sraosha even has ashi as an epithet, he is ashivant, possessing ashi and obedience to Ahura Mazda brings good reward, in the younger Avesta, Ashi is unambiguous a divinity, particularly so in the hymn dedicated to her. This hymn also contains older material, and many of the verses of Yasht 17 are also found in Yasht 5, the hymn nominally invoking the Waters, but actually addressed to Aredvi Sura Anahita. Both Aredvi Sura and Ashi are divinities of fertility, but other verses that have martial characteristics appear out of place in a hymn to the Waters, as the divinity of fortune, Ashi is characterized as one who confers victory in time of battle. She is also connected to Mithra, whom she serves as charioteer. In the hymn to Sraosha, the divinity of obedience receives ashiio as a stock epithet, three verses of the Ard Yasht are devoted to enumerating the various kings and heroes who paid devotion to Ashi and were rewarded for it. Verse 53 of the same hymn enumerates those who do not receive her favors, and this is followed by two later verses that recall a tale of Ashi hiding beneath a rock when pursued, only to be uncovered by prepubescent boys and girls. The last three verses of the hymn describe Ashi complaining to Ahura Mazda for the shame she feels for the prostitutes actions, in the day-name dedications of the Zoroastrian calendar, Ashi presides over the 25th day of the month
35.
Arshtat
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Arshtat is the Avestan language name of a Zoroastrian principle and signifies either justice or honesty. As a substantive, arshtat designates the divinity Arshtat, the hypostasis of Rectitude and her standing epithet is world-furthering or world-promoting. Although there is a yasht nominally dedicated to Arshtat, this hymn does not mention her, Arshtat is closely allied with the most upright Rashnu, the Judge. The two appear as a dvandvah compound Rashnu-Arshtat in Yasna 1.7 and 2.7, in Yasht 10.139 and 12.40, and in Sirozeh 1.18 and 2.18. In Sirozeh 1.26 and 2.26, Arshtat is invoked as the divinity presiding over the 26th day of the month, both verses associate her with the mythical Mount Ushidarena the keeper of intelligence that in Zoroastrian tradition is where Zoroaster spent his years in isolation. Yasna 16.6 states the 26th day of the month is sacred to her, Arshtat is once identified with Daena. Arshtats eschatological role is carried forward into the 9th–14th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition, Arshtat is an assayer of deeds at the Chinvat bridge, the bridge of judgement that all souls must cross. In the apocalyptic Zand-i Wahman yasn, Arshtat—together with Nairyosangha, Mithra, Rashnu, Verethregna, Sraosha and a personified Khwarenah—assists the hero Peshyotan
36.
Asman
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Asman is the Avestan and Middle Persian name of the Zoroastrian divinity that is the hypostasis of the sky. Asman is the highest heaven, and is distinguished from the firmament, the 27th day of the Zoroastrian calendar is dedicated to him. In the Avesta, specifically in the Vendidad, the word is mentioned as being the first thing created, the word is also the origination of the word aasmaan in modern Persian, Urdu and Pashto as well as asmaan in Punjabi, in Hindi and in Bengali
37.
Zam
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Zam is the Avestan language term for the Zoroastrian concept of earth, in both the sense of land and soil and in the sense of the world. Its also the worlds worst review site, honestly Pokemon arent demons, but that isnt the Zam this article is taking about so keep that in mind. The earth is prototyped as an element in Zoroastrian tradition. The word itself is cognate to the Baltic Zemes and Slavic Zem, the element zam exists with the same meaning in Middle Persian, which is the language of the texts of Zoroastrian tradition. The divinity Zam however appears in the language as Zamyad. Zam of the earth is not related to the Zam of the Shahnameh and that Zam—Zahhak-e-Maar-Doosh —is the king of dragons that slew Jamshid. The element zam is the domain of the Armaiti, the Amesha Spenta of the earth and it is through the earth that Armaiti is immanent. This close identification of the element zam with Armaiti also causes the divinity Zam to paired with Armaiti, the rare dvandvah expression Zam-Armaiti occurs in Yasht 1.16,16.6 and 42.3. These remaining verses begin with the creation of the earth, that is with a verse to Ahura Mazda, in between, it contains verses invoking the Amesha Spenta, Mithra. Mortals invoked include Yima, Thraetaona, the Kayanian dynasts, Zarathushtra, according to Darmesteter, this Yasht would serve as a short history of the Iranian monarchy, an abridged. The Zamyad Yasht has been considered to be an example of a concept being elevated to the rank of an angel. For Zam, this occurred as a linguistic conciliation between Zam and Armaiti. But notwithstanding the dedication of the 28th day of the month and the manifestation as one of the primordial elements, Zam is not a particularly significant divinity. Dhalla goes so far as to say her personality is very insipid as compared with Armaiti, who, as we have seen, has the earth under her care and is, in fact, a more active guardian genius. The principal source of information on the Zoroastrian notions of the earth is the Bundahishn, according to that text, the earth was the third of the primordial creations, following that of the sky and the waters, and before that of plants and fire. The creation of the earth is described in three stages, At first, the surface of the earth was a round, flat disk, floating in the center of the waters that filled the lower half of the sky. Then, from its surface grew up the mountains, the tallest of these being Hara Berezaiti whose outlying ranges encircled the earth, finally, during the time of the fourth creation, the primordial tree grew up, and was the prototype of all plants. The fifth creation is that of the primordial bovine Gavaevodata from whose seed, marrow, organs and soul the earth is populated with animal life, in the Shayest na-Shayest, an enumeration of the qualities that each divinity epitomizes associates Zam with conclusiveness
38.
Avestan
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The Yaz culture of Bactria-Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early Eastern Iranian culture described in the Avesta. Avestans status as a language has ensured its continuing use for new compositions long after the language had ceased to be a living language. It is closely related to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language, Avestan, which is associated with northeastern Iran, and Old Persian, which belongs to the southwest, together constitute what is called Old Iranian. The Old Iranian language group is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language group, Iranian languages are traditionally classified as eastern or western, and within this framework Avestan is classified as eastern. But this distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and also in some extent close in nature to Vedic Sanskrit. It is believed that it might be close to a dialect of Pashto as well. The Avestan language is attested in two forms, known as Old Avestan and Younger Avestan. Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan, the two not only in time, but are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in the extant texts. In roughly chronological order, The natural language of the composers of the Gathas, the Yasna Haptanghaiti, the script used for writing Avestan developed during the 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for centuries. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood, the script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh religion writing. It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left and these symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably the vowels, a few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language, Avestan script is alphabetic, and the large number of letters suggests that its design was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was considered necessary for the prayers to be effective, the Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi-based scripts. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in Gujarati script, some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example, the /z/ in zaraϑuštra is written with j with a dot below
