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.

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• 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.

• YĀSĀWUR

  Peter Jackson

  (d. 1320), a Mongol prince of the Chaghatayid dynasty.

• 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.

• YAŠTS

  Almut Hintze

  the group of 21 Avestan hymns in praise of various deities of the Zoroastrian pantheon. In principle, each is entirely devoted to the praise of one particular deity and can be recited by any member of the community, priest or layperson, male or female

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