Ahriman: spirit of evil and darkness, adversary of Ahura Mazda, in Mazdean and Zoroastrian religion.
Ahura Mazda: “wise Lord”, supreme God in Mazdaism and Zoroastrianism.
Anda (Mongolian): sworn brother (from ant: “oath”) is equivalent to the Turkish kan kar-dech, “blood brother”, because the oath of brotherhood is often taken by exchange of blood.
Akinakes: short sword of the Scythians and Persians.
Amahraspands: group of Zoroastrian archangels, in charge of the material world.
Avesta: set of Zoroastrian sacred texts, belonging above all to eastern Iran, primarily oral transmission.
Balbal (Turkish): standing shapeless stone representing the enemy killed in combat or immolated and in which one intends to enclose his soul (not to be confused with the funerary statue often referred to by the Russian words kameniye baba).
Balkhî (vault): “Vault of Balkh”, slightly lowered with four vaults.
Barbât: ancient Iranian four-stringed lute.
Beg (Turkish): noble, lord. The title can be worn by very high lords. Devalued, he became bey in Ottoman Turkish.
Beki (Mongol): great shaman, shamanic pontiff, shaman-king when the title is worn by shamans who gain political power.
Brahmi and Kharosthi: Indian writings from the Aramaic alphabet, Brahmi, older (7th century BC) being widespread throughout India, the use of Kharosthi, more recent (5th century BC). BC) being limited to the northwest (Punjab) and central Asia.
Buraq: fabulous animal, mount of the Prophet Muhammad during his nocturnal ascension (see Mi'râj nâma).
Cataphract: horseman of the Sassanid armies, entirely protected by very flexible metal mail armor.
Shafi'ite: the third, in order of appearance, of the four legal schools of Islam (early 9th century), favoring tradition (the hadîths, below) and, when it does not provide a direct answer, reasoning by analogy (qiyas).
Shah (Persian): king and, more generally, sovereign.
Chahâr su: in Persian, by contraction chârsu/chorsu, “the four roads”, central crossroads of a city.
Chahâr tâq: in Persian, “the four arches”, monumental construction raised above a chahâr su crossroads.
Shaikh (Arabic): “old man”. The term designates any superior of a religious congregation.
Shaikh ul-Islam: jurist who, in the name of the caliph, holds supreme religious power in a Muslim country.
Chan-yu (Sogdian?): supreme ruler of the Hiong-nou.
Shariat (Arabic): Muslim law which regulates the entire life of the faithful, both religious and civil.
Ribbed dome: dome built on supporting ribs
Pleated (or Armenian) dome: dome with a pleated surface. made up of thick convex veins, separated by furrows. Typical of Central Asia.
Cuerda seca: process consisting of compartmentalizing, before laying colored glazes, the surface of a ceramic tile with lines of different material, providing bright, pure and juxtaposed colors.
Dakhma: (Zoroastrianism. Mazdaism) Buildings or natural locations intended to ensure the defleshing of the body before gathering the bones, whatever the defleshing process.
(Islam) platform supporting the cenotaphs in a hazîra, often surmounting the crypt which receives the burials.
Dar al-huffaz: room for the perpetual recitation of the Koran (also qâri khâna, “reading room”).
Dar al-imara: government palace
Dars khâna: lit. “classroom” in madrasas.
Darvâza khâna: monumental entrance, under a porch, with an interior room, a sort of vestibule.
Deva: god.
Dar al-Gharb (Arabic): the land of war. Refers to all countries that are not Muslim.
Dar al-Islam (Arabic): the country of Islam. Refers to the entire Muslim world as opposed to Dar al-Gharb.
Dihqan (Sogdian): noble. The noble class is very open, ranging from kings to large landowners and large merchants. Member of the landed aristocracy of Mâverâ' al-Nahr
Dinar (Latin): Arab currency; term derived from the Latin denarius.
Dirhem (Greek): Arab currency derived from the Greek drachma.
Djadid (Arabic): “new”. Supporter of a certain modernity (active in Muslim Russia since around 1900) called Jadidism.
Djataka (Sanskrit): collections relating the virtuous actions of the Buddha during his previous lives.
Jihad (Arabic): the holy war that Muslims must wage against infidels and heretics. It is not one of the five obligatory prescriptions of Islam, but it is generally considered to be assimilated to them.
Divan: council, assembly; Council chamber; collection of lyric poems.
Corner: approximately triangular area forming the corner above an arch.
Elchi khâna: guest room for ambassadors.
Emir (Arabic): prince.
Emir Zade (Arab-Persian): son of prince, hence prince. The form Emir was abbreviated to Mir and Emir Zade to Mirza.
Interlacing: ornamental system based on the crisscrossing of straight or curved lines forming eometric patterns.
Farsakh: Iranian unit of distance, the ancient parasang, equivalent to approximately six kilometers.
Furûshân: sellers (Persian).
Ger: round felt tent of Turkish and Mongolian nomads, more often called yurt (from Turkish yurt, hearth, dwelling. (Mongolian): the dwelling, the yurt and the place where it is placed (another kef form).
Ghazi (Arabic): victorious in the holy war.
Giriih: “knot” like that formed by the cords framing the motifs decorating the facades of Islamic buildings; term used more generally for a geometric ornament developing by repetition of an initial element.
Glaze: a thin vitreous layer placed on the surface of a ceramic to make it waterproof and decorate it.
Guldasta: “bouquet”, decorative turrets, not having the function of minaret, at the corners of a building or part of a building.
Gunbad: in Iran and Turkey, tower-shaped mausoleum.
Gur khâna: “burial room” (cenotaph, tomb) in a mausoleum.
Guzar: small neighborhood mosque
Hadîth (Arabic) “words” made by the Prophet Muhammad (therefore emanating from him and not, like the Koran, word of God), collected and founding the tradition (Sunna).
Haft rang: “with seven colors”, in fact a double firing technique, the first over high heat for the glaze, the second over low heat for fixing the enamels. The pattern is painted before firing.
Hanafite: the second of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, founded by Abu Hanifa and illustrated particularly by masters from Central Asia; widespread in particular among the Turkish peoples, is considered to be the most open to interpretation.
Havuz (hawz, hawza, khaouz): open-air basin (unlike the sar-dâba, below) and generally with steps, serving as a water reserve for a neighborhood or a home. The term applies to the most diverse containers
Hazar baf: “a thousand weaves”, a type of wall covering with repeated, geometric and calligraphic patterns, alternating glazed and unglazed bricks.
Hazîra: type of burial, uncovered funerary enclosure but equipped with a portal. Tradition considers that the tomb of the Prophet in Medina was the first example of hazira, but it was especially in Central Asia and precisely in Bukhara where the principles of Islam were followed with rigor, that this tradition was established and maintained. architectural.
Horde: see juz.
Hujra: cell, of student, dervish or devotee wanting to retreat (“quarantine” chilla khâna).
Ikat: fabric that has been dyed, thread by thread, before weaving, in successive baths and each time covering the parts that the dye should not touch.
Imam (Arabic): the guide. The one who leads the prayer at the mosque or, among the Shiites, the one who leads the community.
Imârat: Islamic charitable foundation, notably providing meals to the poor.
Pleasure pavilion in a small garden. Kiosk.
Inâq: sort of mayor of the palace, in Khiva in the 18th century, real holder of power who ended up taking the title of khan (Qûnghrat dynasty).
Iwân (Arabic): sort of porch, large, deep, vaulted cradle, widely open, characteristic element of ancient Iranian art (Sassanid palace of Ctesiphon) and remained in use. An iwan can, for example, be designed as an entrance, and then bears the Persian name pishtaq.
Jama'at khâna: community meeting room.
Juz: “hundred”, name given to the three groups (“small, medium and large”) which bring together all ethnic Kazakhs, rendered in French as “horde”, which is only appropriate if we restore the word to its original meaning of “camp, army”.
Kaghan (Turkish): emperor, supreme leader, often translated as “great khan”.
Kam (Turkish): shaman. Mongolian says bô, bôge, bô'ô.
Kalila and Dimna: name of a couple of foxes, title of a collection of animal fables from Sanskrit literature (Pancatantrâ) and transmitted in multiple translations (Iranian languages in particular).
Kâshi: ceramic element, named after the city of Kashan, famous during the Saljuk period for its glossy tiles.
Katun (Turkish): lady, empress. The word became hatun and kadin. Today, it only means “madam”.
Khan: 1. caravanserai (Persian: nest, inn); 2. Turkish title of nobility, used among the Sedjuks and the Mongols.
Kesh (koch, kosh: Persian): “pairing” of monuments built as a couple. this notion is mainly applied to Central Asia e.g. : Registan of Samarkand. “Vis-à-vis”, a process which consists of building, opposite a pre-existing building, another, related building, taking up with calculated variations certain of its characteristics, sometimes established in such a way as to dominate its predecessor.
Keshk: “manor”, strong house outside the walls at the time of the Arab conquest; later “pavilion” hence our “kiosk”.
Kesi: silk tapestry.
Khamsa: set of five great poems by the same author.
Khan (Turkish): ruler. Probably a contracted form of kaghan. Generally refers to a lesser prince. The term has today become a simple noble title.
Khânaqâh: (Persian): convent. The complex institution seems of Manichean origin. Building intended to accommodate members of brotherhoods for spiritual exercises, quite close to the Ottoman tekke. It often has a mausoleum which sometimes became the place of worship of the saints.
Kharosthi: see brahmi.
Khutba (Arabic): the Friday sermon at the mosque carried out in the name of the sovereign or recognized authority.
Kitâb khâna: book production and decoration workshop.
Kufi: from kufa (Iraq). Refers to a calligraphic style with angular shapes, which has taken various ornamental forms
Kumis (Turkish-Mongolian): fermented mare's milk.
Kûndal: painted decoration applied to a white or red clay background worked in light relief. (often with gold)
Kuriltaï (Mongol): plenary assembly of Mongol chiefs, notably convened for the election of the sovereign in the family of the deceased prince.
Kwadja (Persian): master. Used very widely, the word has had a strong religious connotation in Central Asia from the 15th century onwards.
Lajvardina: azure-colored glaze (hence its name, which is that of lapis lazuli in Persian and Turkish), obtained in fact with a cobalt oxide.
Lokapâla: celestial guardian of the directions.
Madrasa: (Arabic): Muslim theological school and, by extension, any educational and research establishment, although the latter are often designated by a specific word. In Turkish and Persian: medrese; in North Africa: madrasah.
Mahayana: (Sanskrit) “great vehicle”, form of Buddhism characterized by the role of Buddha and bodhisattva, today the most widely diffused.: Great Vehicle, Buddhist doctrine formed around the Christian era.
Majolica: Italian earthenware, particularly from the Renaissance period, whose tin or lead glaze was borrowed from Spanish potters.
Malik (Arabic): king.
Mamluk (Arab): white slave; mercenary slave of Arab troops.
Marqab khâna: bazaar stables.
Maqsura (Arabic), place of prayer separated by a wooden grille from the rest of the space and reserved for the sovereign or his governor in the Friday mosque. The sovereign was thus cut off from the audience and in safety.
Masjid-i jami': mosque large enough to accommodate the faithful during Friday community prayer; Great Mosque of a city.
Mausoleum: While Koranic law prescribes the greatest simplicity for burials, Central Asia saw the birth of sumptuous funerary architecture whose summit is marked by the crypt mausoleums of the Timurids. Elte spread throughout the Muslim world as the Turks took possession of it. To respect the ban on praying at the tomb, a prayer room is c; adjacent to the funeral hall, or the building is not oriented towards Mecca.
Mavera 'al-Nahr: Region beyond the river, i.e. the Amu Darya.
Mawâlî: “freed people”; after the Islamic conquest, non-Arabs converted and considered “clients” of an Arab tribe. Their discontent played a role in the fall of the Umayyads and the rise of the Abbasids.
Mazar: tomb subject to a pilgrimage.
Pull loom: type of loom of Chinese origin, allowing the creation of large designs.
Mihrâb: (Arabic): empty niche which, in a mosque, indicates the direction of Mecca towards which one must turn to pray. There are portable mihrabs. Empty niche in the qibla (see this word) wall of a mosque, often decorated with great care.
Minbar: in a mosque, stepped pulpit from which the preacher delivers his sermon during the solemn Friday prayer.
Ming oï: “a thousand houses” in Uighur Turkish, name of a group of cells in Xinjiang.
Mi'râj nâma: account of the ascension that the Prophet Muhammad made in one night to the throne of God. Mounted on the fabulous animal Buraq, accompanied by the archangel Gabriel, he flew from Mecca to Jerusalem where Buraq left the imprint of his hoof on the sacred rock covered by the dome of the Rock, and from there, rose to the through the seven two to the throne of God. Along the way, he met all the prophets, including Adam, Moses, Abraham and Jesus, passed through hell and was welcomed into Paradise by the houri, eternally beautiful, young and chaste beings.
Mobad (Persian): mage, superior of the ecclesiastical hierarchy who became under the Sassanids the official priest of Mazdaism.
Mullah (Persian, from Arabic mauld): doctor of the law and religious figure of Shiite Islam.
Earthenware mosaic: this magnificent ornamentation of Islam, in the medieval era, is composed of geometric floral or calligraphic (calligraphy) motifs in mosaic, an assembly of polychrome ceramic elements, which cover the exterior and interior walls Glazed polychrome tiles , baked, are arranged on decorative surfaces in a pattern. The glazed decorative elements are first placed in a mass of stucco mortar. when this mass is dry, the mosaic plates obtained are applied to the wall or dome, the varnished part on the outside.
Muqarnas: (Arabic): stalactites or honeycombs. Architectural and decorative motif of Muslim art. Architectural decorative motif, derived from the overhanging bricks which, in Central Asian architecture, ensured at the corners the passage from the square plan of the buildings to the circle of the dome.
Musalla: large mosque built mainly in the countryside and which shows the qibla from afar
Naqqash, naqqash khâna: decorator (in painting, carving, engraving, etc.); workshops of the palace where these artists worked.
Namazgâh: vast esplanade bordered by a wall where a mihrab is set up, a place of prayer and general meeting in memory of the Prophet's habit of bringing together the community of his faithful outside the rampart of Medina, called musalla (in Arabic), namazgâh or 'idgâh (in Persian).
Naskhi: Arabic cursive writing, characterized by the break in the baseline and by flexible, rounded letters.
Naus: building whose function is to preserve the fleshless bones of the deceased in Zoroastrian funerary rituals of Central Asia.
Nisba: qualifier added to the names of a person and indicating which city (tribe, region, etc.) they come from.
Obo (Turkish): cairn. Pile of stones made in a holy place, at a difficult passage.
Ongon (Turkish-Mongol): idols or, more precisely, “supports of souls”, made of various materials and representing many things, on which a large part of family worship is focused.
Otchigin (Turkish-Mongol): the “prince of fire”, the youngest son, particularly among sovereigns, responsible for guarding the paternal home and the heritage.
Padichah (Persian): emperor.
Pehlevi: “Middle Persian”, language in use under the Parthians and the Sassanids, in which several books of the Avesta were written.
Pendant: each of the four spherical triangles which allow you to move from the square plane to the circular plane and which carry the dome.
Pîshtâq: (lit. front arch) portal with a monumental facade, formula developed in the Timurid period. These portals were distinguished by a raised arch in front of the iwan.
Protome: figure, human or animal, of which only the front part (the head and the top of the bust) is represented.
Pyrea: pyre, funeral or cult. Place where the Mazdaeans maintain the sacred fire. Fire altar.
Qabbân: (modern Turkish kapâri), warehouse for wholesale trade, where goods were weighed.
Qâri khâna: see Dar al-huffaz.
Qâsh: see kesh
Qibla: (Arabic) orientation for prayer, direction of the Ka'ba (Mecca; in Central Asia, substantially west).
Qyrma: decoration of openwork stucco panels on a colored background.
Rabad: suburb.
Rabat: see ribât.(Arabic)
Régistan: lit. “sandy place” (the correct form would be rigestân, from Persian rtg, sand), vast open space often located between the citadel and the shahrestân in the cities of Central Asia.
Ribât: a sort of fortified Islamic convent, outside the towns, then a simple fortified caravanserai.
Rivâq: see iwân.
Sama': ritual dance in certain Islamic mystical brotherhoods.
Sardâba: underground cistern or icehouse.
Sarvastivadin: school of Hinayana Buddhism, well represented in Central Asia (Kucha, Kara-shahr).
Sayyid (Arabic): noble. Descendant of the Prophet.
Senmurw: see simurgh.
Shahadda (Arabic): Muslim profession of faith.
Shahid (Arab): witness. The “martyr” who fell in the holy war.
Shahrestan: corresponds to the Arab madina, a commercial and residential town, contrasting with the citadel (ark), seat of administrative and military power.
Shaykh: Islamic polite term, venerable “Old Man”, used for the founders of brotherhoods, doctors of the law or mystics.
Simurgh (old form Senmurw): fabulous bird, sort of phoenix in Iranian mythology.
Sufism (Arabic: Tasawwuf; of Suf; woolen garment) Islamic mystical movement that dates back to the 7th-8th centuries and seeks the spiritual path to God. The majority of mystics (Sufis) certainly recognize your sharia and the five pillars of Islam, but they place more value on inner purification as a means of achieving self-knowledge (marifa) than on observation “external” commandments
Soyurgal (Turkish-Mongolian): edit. In particular text exempting from taxes and corvées.
Stucco: mixture of plaster, slaked lime, sand and water used while still wet to model a decoration. Stucco dries very quickly in the sun, but it is not resistant to bad weather. The stucco work was actually carried out directly on the buildings, on panels provided for this purpose. The decoration was engraved in the wet stucco then affixed to the building.
Sufi: follower of one of the Islamic mystical brotherhoods.
Taq: bow.
Tamga (Turkish): sign of ownership, iron mark on livestock.
Tarîkat: “Ways”, term which designates the mystical brotherhoods (“Sufis”) of Islam.
Tawriq: ornamentation based on leaves and plant elements.
Tchi: motif borrowed by Islamic art from China, in the shape of a tormented cloud.
Tegin (Turkish): high-ranking prince, son of a sovereign.
Tekke (Turkish): convent.
Tengri (Turkish and Mongolian): Heaven-God. Supreme deity of the steppe religion. Numerous dialect forms (tenggeri, etc.).
Theravada (Sanskrit): opinion of the Ancients. A more appropriate word than hinayana to designate this Buddhist school.
Thang-ka: Tibetan scrolls.
Thuluth (sulus): type of Arabic cursive writing, one of the six types established at the beginning of the 11th century like naskhi.
Tilla: gold, gold coin in Persian.
Timbak: gilded copper.
Tiraz: state factories responsible for making silk fabrics embroidered with gold.
Tîm: covered building, both market and warehouse, for valuable items (bedesten in the Ottoman world).
Toy (Turkish): banquet, originally funerary, hence any large assembly and, among some, the kuriltaï.
Trompe: arch pierced with niches built at the corners of a square or rectangular base to ensure the transition with the circular shape of the dome.
Tugh (Turkish-Mongolian): standard. Seems to have been mainly a pole garnished with yak or horse tails.
Ulus (Turkish-Mongolian): the nation, but first of all the country, the soil, the territory. The word is used to designate the various Genghiskhanid khanates.
Umma (Arabic): the Muslim community beyond any geographical or political meaning.
Wang (Chinese): king. Pronounced ong in Central Asia.
Waqf: inalienable pious foundation to which the benefactor bequeaths his property, and whose management he entrusts to his descendants.
Waq-waq: mythical islands in the distant seas where a tree grows with marvelous fruits that have a human shape.
Wuzhu: coins minted under the Early Han (220 BC-8 AD) and Later Han (23-220) and which circulated until the beginning of the Tang period (from of 618).
Yasaq (Mongolian): prohibited. Mongolian law established by Genghis Khan.
Yog (Turkish): funerals and, by extension, any large meeting.
Yurt (Turkish): the country. The place where the camp is set up. By mistake, the Russians understood that it was the residence on a circular plan and in the shape of a bell (whose real name is ker/ger) and we followed them. Ongon (Turkish-Mongol): idols or, more precisely, “supports of souls”, made of various materials and representing many things, on which a large part of family worship is focused.
Zawiya: seat of an Islamic brotherhood, equivalent of kbânaqâh.
Zikr khâna: in the khânaqâhs in particular, a piece with a centered plan where the faithful reach ecstasy through the rhythmic and controlled repetition of the names of God.
Ziyârat khâna: “pilgrimage room”, room which in mausoleums immediately precedes the cenotaph room (gurkhâna) and where the faithful make their devotions.
Cf. Chuvin 1999, and Roux, and Hattstein 2000
See Chebel dictionary
