Lexicon of Arms and Armor from Iran: A Study of Symbols and Terminology

560 pages, illustrations, map : 25 cm. With over 5700 entries, the book Lexicon of Arms and Armor from Iran: A Study of Symbols and Terminology provides a sound and solid base of terminology of arms and armor in Persian so that military historians, historians, museum curators, researchers and collectors and also people interested in reading historical accounts and epic stories would be able to understand and use the appropriate terms related to each certain type of weapons. Persian culture and civilization is a fascinating old culture. Therefore, all major types of the Persian language are taken into consideration, namely, the Avestan, the Old Persian, the Middle Persian (Pahlavi), and the New Persian. Next to each entry which is written in its phonetic alphabet, the original script is provided as well. Therefore, there are four different phonetic alphabets provided for each type of script. Next to each entry, after the phonetic alphabet and original script, the type of Persian language is identified as (Avesta), (Old Persian), (Middle Persian/Pahlavi) or (New Persian). Additionally, Karname-ye Ardesir Babakan [The War Treatise of Arde ir Babakan] is identified as a source for some entries in the Middle Persian as (Karname-ye Ardesir Babakan, Middle Persian/Pahlavi). Sources in New Persian are identified individually as well after the phonetic alphabet and the original script, such as (Sahname). Over ninety primary sources in New Persian were consulted to search for arms-and-armor-related words among them the Sahname, Eskandarname and different types of Zafarname. Further, due to their importance for this research, three manuscripts in Arabic were consulted that were written by Persian scholars. These include Alboldan by Abubakr Ahmad ben Mohammad ben Eshaq Hamedani, Ahsan al-Taqasim fi Ma'refat-e al-Qalim by Samsoldin Abu Abdollah Mohammad ben Ahmad ben Ababakr Sami Moqadasi, and Al-Jamahir fi Marefat al-Jawaher by Abu Reihn Beyruni. A phonetic alphabet is provided separately for the Avestan, the Old Persian, the Middle Persian, and the New Persian. A combined table of different phonetic alphabets in alphabetical order is also provided so that a search for a certain word can be done easily. Some suras from the holy Qur an are also taken into consideration as these suras written in Arabic are used as gold-inlaid or gold-overlaid inscriptions on a number of Persian arms and armor.…