Encyclopaedia Iranica Online

(ca. 1000-87), outstanding and multitalented representative of the Fatimid religious and political mission ( daʿwa) in the service of the Caliph/Imam Mostanṣer bi’llāh (r. 1036-94). MOʾAYYAD FI’L-DIN ŠIRĀZI (ca. 1000-1087), outstanding and multitalented representative of the Fatimid religious and political mission ( daʿwa) in the service of the Caliph/Imam Mostanṣer bi’llāh (r. 1036-94). Moʾayyad excelled as missionary-agent (dāʿi), statesman and scholar. In his theological and philosophical writings he brought the Ismaʿili spiritual heritage to its p…

(1909-1968), prominent poet and lyricist, better known as Rahi. MOʿAYYERI, Mohammad Hasan, better known as Rahi (Moḥammad Ḥasan Moʿayyeri, b. Tehran, 1 April 1909; d. Tehran, 14 November 1968), prominent poet and lyricist. Born six months after his father’s untimely death, Moʿayyeri was named for the departed Moḥammad Ḥasan Moʾayyad Ḵalvat. His family resolved, however, to call him Biyuk through his adolescent years (Namini, p. 62). He adopted Moʿayyeri as his surname, reflecting his lineage to his paternal grandfather Moʿayyer…

(1823-1863), African slave of Sayyed ʿAli-Moḥammad Širāzi, the Bāb, and participant in the founding events of the Babi movement. MOBĀRAK, HĀJI (b. Africa, 1823; d. Karbala, ca. 1863), African slave of Sayyed ʿAli-Moḥammad Širāzi, the Bāb, and participant in the founding events of the Babi movement. Mobārak, born in Africa, was transported to Iran, purchased by the Bāb’s brother-in-law, Ḥāji Mirzā Abu’l-Qāsem at the age of five, and educated within his household. Mobārak was fully literate and astute at business af…

(1842-1927), British army officer and diplomat who contributed to the study of Baluchistan and the Baluchi language. MOCKLER, EDWARD (1842-1927), British army officer and diplomat who contributed to the study of Baluchi and Baluchistan (Figure 1). Life. Edward Mockler was born on 18 September 1842 at Belgaum (present-day Belagavi in Karnataka) in India. His father, Edward Mockler Sr. (1810-1887), was a surgeon major in the East India Company Army. His mother, Ann Sarah Pritchard, died in 1845, and Edward Mockler senior married Jul…

(1931-1997), Persian novelist and psychiatrist. MODARRESI, Taqi (b. Tehran 1931, d. Baltimore 1997), Persian novelist and psychiatrist who made his literary debut with the publication of his first novel, Yakolyā wa tanhāʾi-e u (Yakolya and Her Loneliness, 1955). He was born to Esmāʿil Modarresi, a lawyer, and Rāżia Ṭabāṭabāʾi, a great grand daughter of Sayyed Moḥammad Ṭabāṭabāʾi, a noted progressive cleric of the Constitutional Revolution era (1906-11 q. v.). Two years after the young Taqi had begun elementary school, his father passed away, leaving behind a wido…

(1854-1933) Parsi priest, scholar, public servant, and community activist. Modi produced scholarly works on a great range of subjects, and he may well have been the most prolific Parsi scholar of modern times. MODI, JIVANJI JAMSHEDJI (1854-1933), Parsi priest, scholar, public servant, and community activist (Figure 1).Modi was the only son of a priest who served as the first head priest (Panthaki) of a fire-temple in South Bombay (Seth Jejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary, Colaba, consecrated in 1836). At the age of 11, Modi obtained his first-grade initiation into priesthood ( navar), and he …

ABU’L-ḤOSAYN , Aḥmad ebn Abi Šojāʿ (d. 356/967) , 4th/10th century Buyid prince, the youngest of the three brothers who conquered western, southern, and central Persia (see BUYIDS). MOʿEZZ-AL-DAWLA, ABU’L-ḤOSAYN , Aḥmad ebn Abi Šojāʿ (d. 356/967) , 4th/10th century Buyid prince, the youngest of the three brothers who conquered western, southern, and central Persia (see BUYIDS). Having already participated in the taking of Shiraz in 324/935-36 when he was only twenty-one years old, he was sent to conquer Kermān. Two years later, he fought the chief amir ( amir al-omarāʾ) of Baghdad, B…

(ca. 1048/49-ca. 1125/27), Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad, a major poet at the court of the Saljuqs in Khorasan in the 12th century. MOʿEZZI NIŠĀBURI, Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-al-Malek (b. Nišābur, ca. 1048-49; d. ca. 1125-27), a major poet at the court of the Saljuqs (Seljuks) in Khorasan in the 12th century, noted for the eloquence of his panegyric odes ( qaṣidas) and his ghazals. His royal patrons included Malekšāh (1072-92), Barkiāroq (1094-1105), Moḥammad (1105-18), and Sanjar (1118-57). He also dedicated many odes to their viziers, notables, includ…

a prominent member of the Kufan ḡolāt and companion of the sixth and seventh Shiʿite imams Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musa al-Kāẓem. MOFAŻŻAL al-JOʿFI, Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Abu Moḥammad b. ʿOmar (d. before 799), a prominent member of the Kufan ḡolāt and companion of the sixth and seventh Shiʿite imams Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musa al-Kāẓem. In the Imami and Noṣayri traditions he is known as the author of a number of apocryphal texts with diverse contents and origins. As a non-Arab, Mofażżal was a mawlā of the Kufan Joʿfi clan of the Yemeni tribe of Maḏḥej. He was a money-changer ( ṣayrafi), and likely the fina…

(or Dašt-e Moḡān, also Muqān), a lowland steppe in Azerbaijan. i. Physical Geography The name “Moḡān” designates an extensive plain west of the Caspian sea, in the historical region of Azerbaijan, divided since the Treaty of Torkmānčāy between Persia and Russia (followed by the Soviet Union and then the Republic of Azerbaijan). The Persian sector fell within the province of East Azerbaijan until 1993, after which it comprised the northern part of Ardabil Province. Factors like relief, soil, vegetation, and h…

vizier and literary patron. MOHALLABI, Abu Moḥammad al-Ḥasan b. Moḥmmad b. Hārun(903-63),vizier and literary patron. Abu Moḥammad Mohallabi was born in 903. He was one of last members to achieve renown from the illustrious clan of the Mohallabids that traced its lineage back nine generations to the army commander al-Mohallab b. Abi Ṣofra (d. 702 or 703). There is little evidence on his early life, other than Mohallabi’s own wistful poetic reflections on the poverty and dire circumstances of his youth (Ṯaʿālebi, II, pp. 223-24). For much of his early adult life, Mohallabi was an …

MOḤAMMAD-ʿALI KHAN ŠIRĀZI, MIRZĀ (b. Shiraz, ca. 1194/1780 d. Tehran, 18 Rabiʿ II 1268/9 February 1852), special envoy of Persia to France (August 1847-December 1847), envoy for the exchange of ratifications of the Second Treaty of Erzurum (March 1848) and the fifth foreign minister of Qajar Persia (July 1851-February 1852).Moḥammad-ʿAli Khan Širāzi’s date of birth has been given as 1186/1772 (Bamdād, III, p. 445), but he himself said that he was seventy years old in 1264/1848 (in Ṣāleḥi, ed., p. 410), which would mean that he was born in 1194…

born Amir Šēr-ʿAli Khan, a prominent Afghan political figure of the Moḥammadzi clan (1857-1914). MOḤAMMAD-AYYUB KHAN, born Amir Šēr-ʿAli Khan, a prominent Afghan political figure of the Moḥammadzi clan (1857-1914). He was the third son of the Afghan amir, Šēr-ʿAli Khan (r. 1279-83 /1863-66, 1285-96/1867-79) by a Mohmand wife, Maryam, daughter of Saʿādat Khan. Moḥammad-Ayyub had a checkered political career in Afghanistan, most of which was spent in and around Herat. He was governor there in 1289/1872, but beca…

Abu’l -ʿAbbās (b. 209/824-25, d. 253/ 867), high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate. MOḤAMMAD b. ʿABD-ALLAH b. ṬĀHER, Abu’l -ʿAbbās (b. 209/824-25, d. 253/ 867), high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate. He was one of several sons of ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ṭāher Ḏu’l-Yaminayn, governor of Khorasan for the ʿAbbasids 213-30/828-45 (see ʿABD-ALLĀH B. ṬĀHER ḎU’L-YAMINAYN), and spent his early years in Khorasan as one of his father’s aides. Then he was summoned westwards by the caliph al-Motwakkel to take over the governorship and šorṭa (command of the guard)…

the third lord of Alamut. He had been designated as heir by his father, Kiā Bozorg-Omid, only three days earlier. Moḥammad duly received the allegiance of all the Nezāri territories in Persia and Syria. MOḤAMMAD B. BOZORG-OMID, the third lord of Alamut (r. 532-57/1138-62). He succeeded to the leadership of the Nezāri Ismaʿili state (see ISMAʿILISM iii. ISMAʿILI HISTORY), daʿwa (see DAʿI), and community on the death of his father, Kiā Bozorg-Omid (r . 518-32/1124-38), on 26 Jomādā I 532/9 February 1138. He had been designated as heir by his father only three days earl…

Abu Šoʿayb al-Nomayri/al-Namiri (d. after 868), the founder and eponym of the Nomayriya/Namiriya sect. MOḤAMMAD B. NOṢAYR, Abu Šoʿayb al-Nomayri/al-Namiri (d. after 868), the founder and eponym of the Nomayriya/Namiriya sect (the nucleus of the later Noṣayriya; see also Noṣayris and ʿAlawi)—a circle ( majles) of Shiʿite mystics whose activities took place in the 9th century between the house of its leader in Baṣra and the tenth and eleventh Imams ʿAli al-Hādi (d. 868) and Ḥasan al-ʿAskari (d. 873) in Samarrāʾ. Accused of extremism ( ḡoloww), he was excommunicated by the Imami Sh…

(811-835), ninth imam of the Twelver Shiʿites, the only child of Imam ʿAli al-Reżā, was only seven years of age at the time of his father's death; The prospect of a non-adult imam brought about widespread confusion in the community. MOḤAMMAD AL-JAWĀD b. ʿAli b. Musā, ABU JAʿFAR, ninth imam of the Twelver Shiʿites (b. Medina, Ramażān 195/June 811; d. Baghdad, Ḏu’l-qaʿda 220/November 835). In common usage he is called by the epithet al-Jawād (occasionally al-Taqi), while in the Shiʿite Hadith he is referred to as Abu Jaʿfar al-Ṯāni. It is unanimously agreed that he was born in Medina …

founder of the Kermāni branch of Shaikhism and one of the main Shiʿite ulema of the modern period. MOḤAMMAD-KARIM KHAN KERMĀNI, ḤĀJJ (b. Kerman, 1225/1810; d. Tahrud, 1288 /1871; Figure 1), the founder of the Kermāni branch of Shaikhism (q.v.) and one of the main Shiʿite ulema of the modern period.On the one hand, the Kermāni Shaikhi (Šayḵi) school, founded after the death of Sayyed Kāẓem Rašti (q.v.; d. 1259/1844, claims to return to the foundations of Shiʿite Islam, that is, to the teaching of the Prophet and the Imams contained in the Had…

 a master of the Kermani Shaikhis and author of important Shaikhi religious literature. MOḤAMMAD KHAN KERMĀNI, ḤĀJJ (b. Kerman, 1262/1846; d. Langar, 1324/1906; Figure 1), a master of the Kermani Shaikhis and author of important Shaikhi religious literature (see also SHAIKHISM).Ḥājj Moḥammad Khan Kermāni succeeded his father Ḥājj Moḥammad-Karim Khan Kermāni (q.v.; d. 1288/1871) as head of the Kermani branch of Shaikhism (Hermann, 2017). Moḥammad Khan was a member of the Qajar royal family, the grandson of Moḥammad-Ebrāhim Khan Ẓahir-a…

(1883-1933), king of Afghanistan, first representative of the new Dorrāni dynasty. MOḤAMMAD NĀDER SHAH (b. Dehra Dun, 21 Ḥamal 1262 Š./9 April 1883; d. Kabul, 17 ʿAqrab 1312 Š./8 November 1933), King of Afghanistan, first representative of the new Dorrāni dynasty (see AFGHANISTAN x. POLITICAL HISTORY) known as the Yaḥyā-ḵēl or Moṣāḥebān. Through his father, Sardār Moḥammad Yusof, Moṣāḥeb, Moḥammad Nāder belonged to the Bārakzay Moḥammadzay family of Sultan Moḥammad. The latter had been the unfortunate rival of his half-brother, the Amir Dōst Moḥammad, …