Notes on Names and Abbreviations
The rendering of ancient Iranian names and terminology in English and other European languages is complicated by the frequency of transmission through non-Iranian sources, as well as variations in transliteration between ancient scripts and the modern Roman and Farsi alphabets. With this in mind, we have sought where possible to promote clarity for readers through consistency in spelling conventions. The chapters on the Achaemenid period use the royal names bestowed in Greek historiography and Latinised in Anglophone parlance, such as Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, while usually referring to other individuals in the Hellenised forms that appear in the sources, rather than the attested or reconstructed Old Persian versions. Variations in transliteration of personal names grow more complex in the Arsacid and Sasanian periods, and especially in the cases of royal names, the editors have aimed at the selection of common spellings most consistently used in current scholarship.
The abbreviation conventions for citations of Greek and Roman sources follow the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition; others used for important Iranian, Mesopotamian, Armenian, and early Islamic sources are summarised below. Abbreviations for most of the journals cited in chapter bibliographies follow the standard format employed by the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition; additional periodicals and collections of relevance to the study of the Ancient Near East and Iran, referred to in a number of chapters, are also listed below.
| ABC | A.K. Grayson (1975) Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Locust Valley. |
| AD | Babylonian Astronomical Diaries. H. Hunger and A. Sachs (1988â1996) Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, 3 vols. Vienna. |
| AmH | Ariaramnes, Hamadan inscription |
| A3P | Artaxerxes III, Persepolis inscription |
| AO | Der Alte Orient |
| AS | Artaxerxes II, Susa inscription |
| BCHP | R. Van der Spek, I. Finkel, R. Pirngruber, and K. Stevens (forthcoming) Babylonian Chronographic Texts of the Hellenistic Period. |
| BM | British Museum |
| BAI | Bulletin of the Asia Institute |
| Chron. Pasch. | Chronicon Paschale. L. Dindorf (1832) Chronicon Paschale. Bonn; M. Whitby and M. Whitby (1989) Chronicon Paschale. Liverpool. |
| CT 56/57 | Babylonian tablet published in T.G. Pinches (1982) Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Part LVII: Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Economic Texts. London. |
| DB | Darius I, Bisotun (Bisitun, Behistun) inscription (Pers. = Old Persian version; Bab. = Babylonian (Akkadian) version; El. = Elamite version). |
(R. Schmitt (1991) The Bisitun Inscriptions of Darius the Great. Old Persian Text. London; E. von Voigtlander (1978) The Bisitun Inscriptions of Darius the Great. Babylonian Text. London.) |
|
| DÄ«n. | Abu Ḥanifa Aḥmad al-DÄ«nawarÄ«. (V. Guirgass and I. Kratchkovsky (eds) (1888) KitÄb al-AkhbÄr al-TiwÄl. Leiden; A. Ê¿Amir (1960) al-AkhbÄr al-á¹iwÄl. Cairo.) |
| DN | Darius I, Naqš-e Rostam inscription. (R. Schmitt (2000) The Old Persian Inscriptions of Naqsh-i Rustam and Persepolis. London.) |
| DP | Darius I, Persepolis inscription |
| DS | Darius I, Susa inscription |
| DZ | Darius I, Suez inscription |
| EKI | F.W. König (1965) Die elamischen Königsinschriften. Graz. |
| Epic Histories | S. Malhasjanc (1968) |
| Fort. | Persepolis Fortification texts from draft editions by G. Cameron, R.T. Hallock, C. Jones, and M.W. Stolper, collated by W. Henkelman for forthcoming publication by the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project. |
| GC 2 | Babylonian tablet published in R. Dougherty (1933) Archives from Erech: Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods, Goucher College Cuneiform Inscriptions, vol. 2. New Haven. |
| IStratonikeia | M.Ã. Åahin (1981) Die Inschriften von Stratonikeia. Teil 2.1: Lagina, Stratonikeia und Umgebung. Bonn. |
| JAEI | Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |
| JANEH | Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History |
| JAR | Journal of Anthropological Research |
| JCS | Journal of Cuneiform Studies |
| JPS | Journal of Persianate Studies |
| JSOT | Journal for the Study of the Old Testament |
| JESHO | Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |
| Jos. Styl. | Joshua the Stylite. F.R. Trombley and J.W. Watt (2000) The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite. Liverpool. |
| Khuz. Chron. | Khuzistan Chronicle. Rezakhani, K. and Amiri Bavandpour, S. (eds) (2016) (RÅ«dÄdnÄme-Ye SoryÄni MosÅ«m Be RÅ«ydÄdnÄme-Ye KhÅ«zestÄn (The Syriac Chronicle Known as the Khuzistan Chronicle). Tehran.) |
| MDP | Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse series: Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, vols. 1â13 (1900â12); Mémoires de la Mission archéologique de Susiane vol. 14 (1913); Mémoires de la Mission archéologiques de Perse â Mission de Susiane, vols. 16â28 (1921â39); Mémoires de la Mission archéologiques en Iran â Mission de Susiane, vol. 29â38 (1943â65); Mémoires de la Délégation archéologiques en Iran â Mission de Susiane, vols. 39â52 (1966â92). |
| NPi | Narseh, Paikuli inscription. (H. Humbach and Skjærvø, P.O. (1983) The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli. Restored text and translation. Wiesbaden.) |
| OGIS | W. Dittenberger (1903â1905) Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae. Leipzig. |
| PAT | D.R. Hillers and E. Cussini (1996) Palmyrene Aramaic Texts. Baltimore. |
| PF | Persepolis Fortification tablet published in R.T. Hallock (1969) Persepolis Fortification Tablets. Chicago. |
| PFa | Persepolis Fortification tablet published in R.T. Hallock (1978) âSelected Fortification Textsâ, Cahiers de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Iran 8: 109â36. |
| PF-NN | Persepolis Fortification tablet from draft editions by R.T. Hallock, collated by W. Henkelman for forthcoming publication by the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project. |
| RINAP | Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period |
| SAA | State Archives of Assyria |
| Seert Chron. | Chronicle of Seert. (A. Scher (1909) âHistoire Nestorienne (Chronique de Séert), seconde partie, fasc. 1â. Patrologia Orientalis 7: 95â203.) |
| Å KZ (=RGDS) | Shapur I, Kaʾba-ye Zardusht inscription (= âRes Gestae Divi Saporisâ). (M. Back (1978) Die sassanidischen Staatsinschriften. Studien zur Orthographie und Phonologie des Mittelpersischen der Inschriften zusammen mit einem etymologischen Index des mittelpersischen Wortgutes und einem Textcorpus der behandelten Inschriften (Acta Iranica 18), 284â371. Leiden; P. Huyse (1999) Die dreisprachige Inschrift Å Äbuhrs I. an der Kaba-i ZarduÅ¡t (Å KZ). London.) |
| Ṭab. | Muhammad b. Jarir al-ṬabarÄ«. (M.J. de Goeje (1879) TaʾrÄ«kh al-rusul waâl-mulÅ«k. Leiden; M.J. de Goeje, P. de Jong, and E. Prym (1890) History of Prophets and Kings. Vol. IV. Leiden; C.E. Bosworth (1999) The History of al-ṬabarÄ«, Vol. V: The SÄsÄnids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Albany.) |
| XP | Xerxes, Persepolis inscription (R. Schmitt (2000) The Old Persian Inscriptions of Naqsh-i Rustam and Persepolis. London.) |
| ZAR | Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte |
| ZA | Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie |