Encyclopaedia Iranica Online

a category of books and manuals dealing with horses and horsemanship. Topics treated in this literary genre include horse-breeding, grazing, dressage, veterinary advice, horseracing and betting, and the art of divination based on the mien and movements of horses. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 243-244 FARAS-NĀMA, Persian term for a category of books and manuals dealing with horses and horsemanship. Topics treated in this literary genre include horse-breeding, grazing, dressage, veterinary advice, horserac…

or Parau, a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern edge of the Kopet-Dag range facing the Kara Kum desert. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 244-245 FARĀVA (Parau), a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern edge of the Kopet-Dag range facing the Kara Kum desert. In the early Islamic period it was one of a string of strongly defended fortresses ( rebāṭs), also including Abīvard, Nasā, and Dehestān (qq.v.), along the northern front…

Fardin’s 23-year film career blossomed late, after a short stint in the theater, and it suffered an early demise in 1981 when the Islamic Republic of Iran banned him from filmmaking in a wholesale purge of the major entertainers of the pre-revolution era. FARDIN, Moḥammad-ʿAli (b. Tehran, 6 April 1930; d. Tehran, 7 April 2000), a popular Iranian actor (FIGURE 1). Born and raised in a poor neighborhood in the south of Tehran, Moḥammad-ʿAli was the eldest of three children. His father, a carriage builder who later opened his own machinery a…

the Arabic term for “rider on a horse, cavalryman,” connected with the verb farasa/farosa “to be knowledgeable about horses, be a skillful horseman” and the noun faras “horse." A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 245 FĀRES (plurs. forsān, fawāres), the Arabic term for “rider on a horse, cavalryman,” connected with the verb farasa/farosa “to be knowledgeable about horses, be a skillful horseman” and the noun faras “horse.” Since in ancient Arabian society the owner of a horse was a comparatively rich man, often a tribal chief, sayyed, and since in the early Islamic dīvān (q.v.) system the cavalryman was entitled to a stipend double that of the infantryman, the forsān were a privileged class, and acquired some of the fighting qualities and chivalric attributes of the medieval European knight. Hence by later ʿAbbasid, Ayyubid and Mamluk time, the term forūsīya had evolved for the ensemble of moral qualities and riding and weaponry skills necessary for the cavalryman. The fāres thus came in many ways to be the equivalent of the Persian mailed cavalryman, the Old Pers. asabāra- and the Middle Persian and early…

See ABŪ ʿALĪ FĀRESĪ.

(d. 1320), the most significant figure in optics after Ebn al-Hayṯam (Alhazen; 965-1040). The two names have been linked due to his critical revision of Ebn al-Hayṯam’s Ketāb al-manāẓer, which represents a watershed in the scientific understanding of light and vision. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 245-249 FĀRESĪ, KAMĀL-AL-DĪN ABU’L-ḤASAN MOḤAMMAD b. Ḥasan (d. 721/1320), the most significant figure in optics after Ebn al-Hayṯam (Alhazen; 354-430/965-1040). The two names have been linked on account of Kamāl-al-Dīn’s critical revision of Ebn al-Hayṯam’s Ketāb al-manāẓer, which represents a watershed in the scientifi;c understanding of light and vision. Kamāl-al-Dīn’s work, entitled Tanqīḥ al-manāẓer le-ḏawī al-abṣār wa’l-baṣāʾīr, was for long assumed to be a commentary ( šarḥ) on the Ketāb al-manāẓer. This impression was partly reinforced by the autobiographical info…

a literary term used in Arabic literature to refer to poems in Arabic which contain some Persian words or even phrases in their original form, the most notable example being the Fāresīyāt of Abū Nowās.…

valley of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) river extending ca. 300 km between the Farḡāna mountains in the east and the first sharp bend of the river’s course to the north. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 251-254 i. IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD Under its present name, Farḡāna is first mentioned in written sources only in the 5th century C.E. However, several settlements of the chalcolithic period have been discovered there. There are also some chance finds of Early and Middle Bronze Age objects, even if no burial…

b. Moḥammad b. Kaṯīr (fl. ca. 950 C.E.), Muslim astronomer. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 254-255 FARḠĀNĪ, AḤMAD,b. Moḥammad b. Kaṯīr, Muslim astronomer. Farḡānī flourished at Sāmarrā during the period that it served as the capital of the ʿAbbasid caliphs (836-92 C.E.), though Ṣāʿed Andalosī (p. 141) states that he was one of al-Maʾmūn’s astronomers. Nothing is known about his family nor much about his life beyond his authorship of a triad of influential works and his unsucces…

b. ʿOṯmān Ūšī or Ūsī (d. 1173), oṣūlī jurist ( faqīh), traditionist, and author. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 256-57 FARḠĀNĪ, EMĀM-AL-ḤARAMAYN SERĀJ-Al-DĪN ABU’L-MOḤAMMAD ʿALĪ,b. ʿOṯmān Ūšī or Ūsī, oṣūlī jurist ( faqīh), traditionist, and author. All that is known about him is that he was Hanafite by persuasion and followed the teachings of Mātorīdī. The date of his death is given as 569/1173 (Kaḥḥāla, Moʾallefīn, VII, p. 148; Kašf al-ẓonūn II, p. 1200; Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 429) and 575/1179 (Esmāʿīl Pasha, V, p. 700; Kašf al-ẓonūn II, p. 135…

b. Ahmad (d. 1300), Sufi author from the town of Kāsān in Farḡān. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 255-256 FARḠĀNĪ, SAʿĪD-AL-DĪN MOHAMMAD,b. Ahmad, Sufi author from the town of Kāsān in Farḡāna (d. Ḏu’l-ḥejja 699/August 1300; see Scattolin, 1993, p. 334). According to Farḡānī’s own account (1988, p. 184), he entered the Sufi path under Najīb-al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Bozḡoš of Shiraz (d. 678/1279), a disciple of Šehāb-al-Dīn ʿOmar Sohravardī. He subsequently studied with Ṣadr-al-Dīn Qūnawī (d. …

thirteenth century Persian poet and Sufi of Farḡāna. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 256 FARḠĀNĪ, SAYF-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD, Persian poet and Sufi of Farḡāna (q.v.). The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. The very little information we have about him is gleaned from his poetry. Farḡānī left Farḡāna after the Mongol invasion of Persia in 618/1221 and sojourned for a while in Tabrīz, where he became familiar with Homām Tabrīzī’s poetry. He then left for Asia Minor, where he took up permanent residence at a ḵānaqāh in Āqsarāy, a flourishing c…

romantic figure in Persian legend and literature, best known from the poetry of Neẓāmī Ganjavī as a rival with the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II Parvēz (r. 591-628) for the love of the beautiful Armenian princess Šīrīn. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 257-258 FARHĀD, a romantic figure in Persian legend and literature, best known from the poetry of Neẓāmī Ganjavī (q.v.) as a rival with the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II Parvēz (r. 591-628) for the love of the beautiful Armenian princess Šīrīn. His story, following it…

FARHĀD, name of a number of Parthian kings. See PHRAATES.

military commander of Shah ʿAbbās I, executed at the Shah’s orders in 1598. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 258-260 FARHĀD KHAN QARAMĀNLŪ, ROKN-AL-SALṬANA, military commander of Shah ʿAbbās I (q.v.), executed at the Shah’s orders in 1007/1598. He was a descendent of Bayram Beg Qaramānlū, one of the great amirs under Shah Esmāʿīl, and son of Ḥosām Beg b. Bahrām Beg. Originally Farhād Khan was a retainer of Ḥamza Mīrzā, son of Shah Moḥammad Ḵodā-banda and one of the pretenders to the Safavid throne in the turbulent period p…

(1818-1888), Qajar prince-governor and bibliophile. Holding highly conservative religious views, he viewed Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah's reformist vizier as an obliterator of the “foundation of the Muslim šarīʿa,” who was guilty of spreading the word “liberty” among the people. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 260-264 FARHĀD MĪRZĀ MOʿTAMAD-AL-DAWLA (b. 1233/1818, Tabrīz; d. 1305/1888, Tehran; Figure 1), Qajar prince-governor, author, and bibliophile. He was the fifteenth son of ʿAbbās Mīrzā (q.v.), younger brother of…

the title of five newspapers and magazines printed in Persia and Europe. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 264-265 FARHANG, the title of five newspapers and magazines printed in Persia and Europe. Presented chronologically they are: 1. Farhang or Farhang-e-Eṣfahān. This was the first newspaper in Isfahan, commencing publication in Jomādā I 1296/April 1879. Beginning with the second year of publication, the name of the city was printed in large letters at the top of the front page; thus it is sometimes referred to as Farhang-e-Eṣfahān. The supposi…

a dictionary of the Persian language named in honor of the maharaja Ānand Gajapatī Rāj, the nineteenth century ruler of Vijayanagar in South India. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 266 FARHANG-E ĀNANDRĀJ, a dictionary of the Persian language named in honor of the maharaja Ānand Gajapatī Rāj, the ruler of Vijayanagar in South India. It was compiled in 1306/1888-89 by the maharaja’s chief secretary ( mīr monšī), the poet and lexicographer Moḥammad Pādɶāh b. Ḡolām Moḥī-al-Dīn, known by the penname Šād. He had previously composed a…

an alternative title for the dictionary Loḡat-e fors. See undeer the author, ASĀDĪ TŪSĪ.

Persian-language dictionary compiled by the well-known fifteenth century poet Ebrāhīm Qewām-al-Dīn Fārūqī. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 267 FARHANG-E EBRĀHĪMĪ, a Persian-language dictionary by the well-known poet Ebrāhīm Qewām-al-Dīn Fārūqī. The author lived in Bihar and compiled his dictionary in 878/1473-74 during the reign of the ruler of Bengal Abu’l Moẓaffar Bārbak Shah (r. 864-79/1460-74). Fārūqī dedicated the work to his spiritual guide ( moršed), the famous Sufi shaikh Šaraf-al-Dīn Aḥmad Monyarī (d. 782/1380-81). …