Table of Contents

• YAGHNOBI

  Roland Bielmeier

  term for a people and their language, derived from the name of the Yaghnob valley and the Yaghnob river in Tajikistan.

• YĀḤAQQI, Ḥosayn

  Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi

  (1903-1968) renowned composer and performer of the violin and the kamānča (spiked fiddle) and instructor of music.

• YAHYA TEPE

  Cross-Reference

  archeological site in the Soḡun valley, Kerman province, ca. 220 km south of Kerman and 130 km north of the Straits of Hormuz. See TEPE YAHYA.

• YAḴČĀL

  Hemming Jørgensen

  Iranian ice-houses were facilities for the storage of solid ice, ensuring that ice was available for local distribution during the summer; they were not used for refrigerating foodstuff.  In its simplest form, the yaḵčāl was a storage pit dug in the ground, and covered with straw, rush, and earth for protection and insulation against sunshine and heat. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• YAʿQUB b. LAYṮ b. MOʿADDAL

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (r. 247-65/861-79), founder of what may be distinguished as the Laythids, or the “first line” within the Saffarid dynasty.

• YARKAND

  Pavel Lurje

  a town in Chinese Turkestan, at the southwestern end of the Tarim Basin (38°27' N, 77°16' E; alt. 1,190 m).

• YĀSĀ

  P. Jackson

  A term used of individual edicts issued by Čengiz Khan and his successors and sometimes of the entire body of such edicts.

• YASNA

  William W. Malandra

  the name for the central ritual in Zoroastrianism and for the long liturgical text recited during the daily performance of the ritual.

• YAZD iv. THE JEWISH DIALECT OF YAZD

  Thamar E. Gindin

   The name “Judeo-Yazdi” is applied to a Central dialect spoken by some Jews of Yazd. The Jewish community of Yazd is one of the oldest in Persia. Although it had never been large, it was divided into two neighborhoods, referred to as ma:le (NPers. maḥalla).

• YAZDEGERD I

  A. Shapur Shahbazi

  Sasanian King of kings (r. 399-420) called “the Sinner.” Sasanian-based sources judge Yazdegerd as a tyrant.