An Arab goddess who served as patron of the Lakhmids and is mentioned dismissively in the Qur’an.
Amir
Arabic for “Commander.”
Anahita
An Iranian warrior goddess with a major shrine at Istakhr in Persia. She was cast by Zoroastrians as a lieutenant of Ohrmazd, the supreme benevolent deity of Zoroastrianism.
Arian
A supporter of the Christian priest Arius, who argued in the early fourth century that God the Father had existed before God the Son. His teachings were condemned as heretical at the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Ascetic
A word that derived from the Greek for “training” and referred originally to Christian hermits who practised spectacular feats of self-mortification.
Asha
The Zoroastrian principle of Truth and Order.
Byzantine
A word used after the foundation of Constantinople to describe a citizen of the city. Many modern historians—although not me—refer to the late Roman Empire as “Byzantine.”
Caliph
Anglicisation of the Arabic
khalifa
—a word that appears twice in the Qur’an, where it seems to have meant “man.” Subsequently, it came to mean “deputy.” When Abd al-Malik laid claim to the title of
Khalifat Allah
, he was describing himself as the “Deputy of God.” Confusingly, the word can also mean “successor”: the title of
Khalifat Rasul Allah
—“Successor of the Prophet of God”—was retrospectively applied to all the early leaders of the Arab Empire.
Caliphate
The Arab—and then Muslim—Empire.
Catholic
From the Greek word for “universal.” It was used, like “Orthodox,” as a self-description by supporters of the Council of Chalcedon—which served, in turn, to cast those opposed to it as mere factionalists.
Chalcedonian
Someone who subscribes to the doctrinal formulations of the Council of Chalcedon, held in 451. It is a measure of the triumph of the Chalcedonians over their various rivals in the Christian Church that they succeeded in appropriating the adjectives “Catholic” and “Orthodox.” Today’s Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Churches are all Chalcedonian.
Dar-al-Islam
Literally, the “House of Islam”—the lands where Muslims are in authority.
Drug
“The Lie”—in Zoroastrianism, the principle opposed to
Asha
.
Dushara
A god widely worshipped by the pagan Arabs as their principal deity.
Ebionites
A sect of Christians who claimed descent from the original Jewish Church.
Ecclesia
Greek for “church.” Originally, it referred to an assembly of citizens.
Farr
The supernatural mark of a Persian king’s majesty.
Fitna
Arabic for “time of trial”—shorthand for civil war.
Foederati
A Latin word used to designate barbarian troops employed by the Romans as mercenaries, generally beyond the frontiers of the empire.
Gentile
A non-Jew.
Ghassanids
An Arab warrior dynasty employed by the Romans against the
Shahanshah
.
Gnostics
Intellectual mystics who believed that
gnosis
—the Greek word for “knowledge”—would provide them with salvation from the material world.
Gog and Magog
Kitten-eating savages imprisoned by Alexander the Great behind gates of brass, and destined to be set free at the end of time.
Hadith
The report of a saying or an action of Muhammad—or, in the early years of Islam, of a Companion of Muhammad. In Islam,
hadith
s are second in authority only to the Qur’an.
Haram
Arabic for “hallowed space.”
Hijra
The Arabic equivalent of “exodus”—a migration. In Muslim tradition, Muhammad’s
hijra
from Mecca to Medina in 622 is the event that brought the Islamic order of time into being.
Imam
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the “founding father” of a tribe or people; but under Islam, the word increasingly came to signify a religious leader.
Iranshahr
“The Dominion of the Aryans”: the name given by the Sasanian kings to their empire.
Isnad
The chain of informants stretching back to the time of Muhammad that serves to validate his sayings.
Ius
Latin for “law.”
Jahiliyya
A word that derives from the Arabic for ignorance—
jahl
—and refers, in Muslim tradition, to the “Age of Ignorance” that existed before Islam.
Jinn
Supernatural creatures bred of fire that haunt the mythology of both pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabia.
Jizya
The poll-tax imposed on Jews and Christians by order of the Qur’an.
Ka’ba
Arabic for “cube”—a shape that the pre-Islamic Arabs seem to have associated strongly with the sacred. Not to be confused with
ka’iba
, meaning “virgin,” and certainly not with
ku’ba
, meaning “breasts.” The most celebrated
ka’ba
stands to this day in the centre of the sanctuary of Mecca.
Kai
An ancient Persian title, meaning “king.”
Karin
A Parthian aristocratic dynasty.
Kayanids
A legendary dynasty from Persian mythology, celebrated for their wondrous exploits and heroic record as fighters of barbarians.
Khalifat Allah
See “Caliph.”
Kharijites
An early Muslim sect celebrated equally for their piety and ferocity.
Lakhmids
An Arab warrior dynasty employed by the
Shahanshah
against the Romans.
Magaritai
The Greek form of the Arab word
muhajirun
.
Manichaeism
A religion that fused Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian and Buddhist teachings, first taught in the third century AD by a prophet from near Ctesiphon named Mani, and savagely persecuted almost everywhere.
Maqom
Hebrew for “place.” The Arabic equivalent is
maqam
.
Mathran
An ancient Persian word meaning “prophet.”
Mazdakite
A follower of Mazdak, a Persian prophet who preached a radical religious message of communism in the early sixth century AD.
Mihr
An ancient Iranian god with special responsibility for the punishment of oath-breakers. His home was the Alburz Mountains in northern Iran, and his sacred colour was green. Zoroastrians regarded him as being, like Anahita, a lieutenant of Ohrmazd; but there were many, in the remoter reaches of