(a. “thresholds”), more fully, ʿalabāt-i ʿāliya or ʿatabāt-i muḳaddasa (“the lofty or sacred thresholds”), the S̲h̲īʿī shrine cities of ʿIrāḳ—Nad̲j̲af, Karbalāʾ, Kāẓimayn and Sāmarrā [ q.vv.]—comprising the tombs of six of the Imāms as well as a number of secondary shrines and places of visitation. Nad̲j̲af, 10 km. to the west of Kūfa, is the alleged site of burial of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 41/661) (another shrine dedicated to ʿAlī is that at Mazār-i S̲h̲arīf in Northern Afghanistan; see K̲h̲wad̲j̲a Sayf al-Din K̲h̲ud̲j̲andī, Karwān-i Balk̲h̲ , Mazār-i S̲h̲ar…

et, d’une manière plus complète, ʿatabāt i ʿāliya ou ʿatabāt-i mukaddasa « les seuils élevés ou sacrés » nom donné aux quatre villes-sanctuaires s̲h̲īʿites du ʿIrāḳ: Nad̲j̲af, Karbalāʾ, Kāẓimayn et Sāmarrā, qui renferment les tombeaux de six des Imāms ainsi qu’un certain nombre de mausolées moins importants et de lieux de pèlerinage. Nad̲j̲af [ q.v.], à dix km. à l’Ouest de Kūfa, est le lieu présumé du tombeau de ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (m. 41/661; un autre mausolée consacré à ʿAlī se trouve à Mazār-i S̲h̲arīf dans le Nord de l’Afg̲h̲ānistan; voir Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Sayf al-dīn Ḵh̲ud̲j̲andī, Karwān-i Ba…

[Voir ʿAtabāt au Suppl.]; Karbalāʾ; al-Ḳuds; al-Madīna ; Makka ; al-Nad̲j̲af ].

ʿataba (A, pl. ʿatabāt) : doorstep. In (folk) poetry, ~ (or fars̲h̲a ‘spread, mat’) is used to designate the fi…

, ʿabd al-nabī b. ʿalī , an Imāmite faḳīh and traditionist whose life spanned two of the chief areas of S̲h̲īʿī concentration, the ʿatabāt of ʿIrāḳ and the D̲j̲abal ʿĀmil in Syria. He was born in Kāẓimayn in 1198/1784 to a father of Medinan origin, and studied there under a number of prominent ʿulamāʾ , the most important being Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā and his son Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh al-S̲h̲ibrī. He was appointed treasurer at the shrine of Kāẓimayn, but in 1244/1828 migrated to the Ḏj̲abal ʿĀmil, settling in the village of Ḏj̲ūyā. Initially unknown, he soon became the most influential ʿālim …

(p), God, lord, master. There is no established etymology for this word and no Middle or Old Persian antecedent. It is used in G̲h̲aznawid times in the sense of lord or master (cf. Abu ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn Bayhaḳī, Tārīk̲h̲-i Bayhaḳī , ed. ʿAlī Akbar Fayyāḍ, Mas̲h̲had 1971, 23, 435, and passim ). In documents and letters belonging to the Sald̲j̲ūḳs and K̲h̲wārazms̲h̲āhs it is used as a term of address to the sultan, usually with some qualifying word or phrase such as k̲h̲udāwand-i ʿālam “lord of the world” (cf. Muntad̲j̲ab al-Dīn al-Ḏj̲uwaynī, ʿAtabat al-kataba, ed. Muḥammad Ḳazwīn…

, ʿAbd al-Nabī b. ʿAlī, faḳih et traditionniste imāmite dont la vie s’étendit sur deux des principales régions de concentration s̲h̲īʿite, les ʿatabāt du ʿIrāḳ et le d̲j̲abal ʿĀmil, au Liban. Né à Kāẓimayn en 1198/1784, d’un père d’origine médinoise, il y fit ses études sous la direction d’un certain nombre d’éminents ʿulamāʾ, dont les plus importants sont Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā et son fils, Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh al-S̲h̲ibrī, puis fut nommé trésorier du mausolée de Kāẓimayn, mais il émigra au d̲j̲abal ʿĀmil en 1244/1828 et s’établit dans le village de …

, Āḳā Sayyid Muḥammad Bāḳir , S̲h̲īʿī mud̲j̲tahid and proponent of the Uṣūlī [ q.v.] mad̲h̲hab , often entitled Waḥīd-i Bihbihānī or Muḥaḳḳiḳ-i Bihbihānī, and commonly regarded by his S̲h̲īʿī contemporaries as the “renewer” ( mud̲j̲addid ) of the 12th Hid̲j̲rī century. He was born in Iṣfahān some time between the years 1116/1704-5 and 1118/1706-7. After a brief period spent in Bihbihān, he was taken to Karbalāʾ by his father, Mullā Muḥammad Akmal, whose principal student he became, while studying also under S…

, Āḳā Sayyid Muḥammad Bāḳir, mud̲j̲tahid s̲h̲īʿite et défenseur du mad̲h̲hab uṣūlī, à qui l’on donne souvent le titre de Waḥīd-i Bihbihānī ou Muḥaḳḳiḳ-i Bihbihānī et que ses contemporains s̲h̲īʿites considèrent couramment comme le « rénovateur » ( mud̲j̲addid) du XIIe siècle de l’hégire. Il naquit à Iṣfahān entre 1116 et 1118/1704-7 et, après un séjour à Bihbihān, il fut emmené à Karbalāʾ par son père, Mullā Muḥammad Akmal, dont il devint le principal étudiant, tout en suivant les cours de Sayyid Ṣadr al-dīn Ḳummī. Mullā Muḥammad Akma…

(“bridgehead of Zohāb”), a place on the way to the Zagros Mountains on the great Bag̲h̲dād-Kirmāns̲h̲āh road, taking its name from the stone bridge of two arches over the river Alwand, a tributary on the left bank of the Diyāla. Sarpul in the early 20th century consisted simply of a little fort ( ḳūr-k̲h̲āna = “arsenal”) in which the governor of Zohāb lived (the post was regularly filled by the chief of the tribe of Gūrān), a caravanserai, a garden of cypress and about 40 houses. The old town of Zohāb, about 4 hours to the no…

, or Taḳī al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Awḥadī, Persian anthologist, lexicographer and poet. He was born at Iṣfahān on 3 Muḥarram 973/31 January 1565, into a family with a Ṣūfī tradition from Balyān in Fārs. One of his paternal ancestors was the 5th/11th-century S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Abū ʿAlī al-Daḳḳāḳ. During his adolescence he studied in S̲h̲īrāz, where he presented his early poems to a circle of poets and was encouraged by ʿUrfī [ q.v.]. Returning to Iṣfahān, he attracted the attention of the young S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās I and joined his entourage. In 1003/1594-5, Taḳī retired for six years to the ʿatabāt …

(“bridgehead of Zohāb”), a place on the way to Zagros on the great Bag̲h̲dād-Kirmāns̲h̲āh road, taking its name from the stone bridge of two arches over the river Alwand, a tributary on the left bank of the ¶ Diyāla. Sarpul now consists simply of a little fort ( ḳūr-k̲h̲āna = “arsenal”) in which the governor of Zohāb lives (the post is regularly filled by the chief of the tribe of Gūrān), a caravanserai, a garden of cypress and about 40 houses. The old town of Zohāb about 4 hours to the north is now in ruins. To the east behind the cliffs of …

(a.), an administrative-military term in the mediaeval eastern Islamic world. From the end of the 3rd/9th century, the term, which in a general sense meant a body of armed men, sufficing for the guarding and control of a town or district on the part of the sultan, is occasionally found in the specific sense of the s̲h̲urṭa [ q.v.] (Tyan, L’organisation judicaire en pays d’Islam , Paris 1938-43, ii, 366, n. 5). As the designation for a military governor of a town or province, the term s̲h̲iḥna belongs primarily to the period of the Great Sald̲j̲ūḳs, though Ab…

Abū l-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad Amīn Gulistāna was a government official in Kirmānshāhān (southeastern Kurdistan) who wrote an important chronicle of Iranian history after Nādir Shāh (r. 1147–60/1736–47). He came from a family of Ḥasanī sayyids (claiming descent from the Prophet) from Isfahan. In the post-Ṣafavid era, many of his relatives became government officials in various parts of Iran. One uncle, Mīrzā Muḥammad Taqī, held several positions of fiscal responsibility under Nādir and his successors in Kirmānshāhān and Persian Iraq, u…

(p.), dieu, seigneur, maître; l’on n’a pu établir l’étymologie précise de ce mot et on ne lui connaît aucun antécédent dans le vieux perse ou le moyen persan. Il était utilisé à l’époque g̲h̲aznawide dans le sens de seigneur ou maître (cf. Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn Bayhaḳī, Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Bayhaḳī, éd. ʿAlī Akbar Fayyāḍ, Mas̲h̲had 1971, 23, 435 et passim). Dans des documents et les lettres concernant les Sald̲j̲ūḳides et les Ḵh̲wārazms̲h̲āhs, il est employé comme terme d’adresse au sultan, habituellement suivi d’un qualificatif ou d’une phrase tels que k̲h̲udāwand-i ʿālam, «seigneur …

, as epithet of the ruler. The word humāyūn is frequently used in the S̲h̲āhnāma with the meaning of “fortunate, glorious, royal”. Its specialized use for things or ideas connected with the ruler is already seen here in the designation of the legendary imperial banner as dirafs̲h̲-i humāyūn . ¶ It was only slowly, however, that the word penetrated into Persian chancery style. In the ins̲h̲āʾ work ʿAtabat al-kataba of Muntad̲j̲ab al-Dīn D̲j̲uwaynī, which was compiled towards the end of the Great Seld̲j̲ūḳ period, the idea does not yet appear. It is only in the chancery of the K̲h̲wārazms̲h̲āh…

Shaykh Aḥmad b. Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʾī (1166–1241/1753–1826) was an ʿālim, an Imāmī mystic and philosopher, and the eponymous leading figure of the theological-mystical school of the Shaykhiyya. He was born in al-Aḥsāʾ (also known as al-Ḥasā), in al-Baḥrayn (in the premodern sense, referring to the mainland of eastern Arabia), to a family that had converted to Imāmī Shīʿism five generations earlier. Little is known of the first years of his life but that he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Neithe…

, arabicized form of dehkān , the head of a village and a member of the lesser feudal nobility of Sāsānian Persia. The power of the dihḳāns derived from their hereditary title to the local administration. They were an immensely important class, although the actual area of land they cultivated as the hereditary possession of their family was often small. They were the representatives of the government vis-à-vis the peasants and their principal function was to collect taxes; and, in the opinion of Chr…

, a heterodox S̲h̲īʿī sect of the later 19th and early 20th centuries in Persia. It is named after a certain Ag̲h̲ā Muḥammad Kāẓim Tunbākū-furūs̲h̲ of Iṣfahān, known as Ṭāwūs al-ʿurafāʾ “Peacock of the (Ṣūfī) initiates” from his elegant dress, who broke away from the Niʿmat-Allāhiyya [ q.v.] Ṣūfī order. On the death of Raḥmat ʿAlī S̲h̲āh S̲h̲īrāzī, who represented the Niʿmat-Allārīs in Iṣfahan, Ṭāwūs refused to recognise his successor there, and, on his expulsion from Iṣfahān in 1281/1864-5, moved to Tehran, dying there in 1293/1876. He was succeeded as ḳuṭb of …

(a.), appartient à la titulature de l’administration militaire du monde islamique oriental médiéval. A partir de la fin du IIIe/IXe siècle, le mot, qui au sens le plus général désigne un corps d’hommes d’armes assurant la garde et le contrôle d’une ville ou d’un district pour le compte de l’autorité, se trouve parfois dans le sens spécifique de s̲h̲urṭa [ q.v.] (Tyan, L’organisation judiciaire en pays d’Islam, Paris 1938-43, II, 366, n. 5). Comme titre du gouverneur militaire d’une ville ou d’une province, le mot appartient primitivement à la période des Grand…