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A Central Asian Turkī word of uncertain etymology (it does not seem to appear in other dialects), which is applied to the predatory raids of Turkish nomads. The importance of this peculiar feature of nomad life as well as the conditions of warfare ( Ḏj̲au) necessitated thereby has been most fully described by W. Radloff ( Aus Sibirien, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893, i. 509 et seq. and Kudatku Bilik, Part i., St. Petersburg, 1891, p. LII et seq.). As long as there was no strong governing authority in the steppes, as long as the force of legal decisions depended only on the perso…

or Derbend-i Āhanīn, Arabic Bāb al-Ḥadīd, Old Turkish Tamir-Ḳapig̲h̲ = “Iron Gate” — a frequently recurring name in the Muḥammadan world for important passes and ravines. The best known is the ravine, about 2 miles long and only 12—20 yards broad, in the Baisun-taw range, through which runs the main road from Samarḳand and Buk̲h̲ārā to Balk̲h̲. This ravine is first mentioned under its Persian name by Yaʿḳūbī (ed. de Goeje, p. 290, 5); Yaʿḳūbī’s statement that a “town” bore this name is not confirmed by …

b. Sahl b. Hās̲h̲im, of the aristocratic Dihḳān family Kāmkāriyān (who had settled near Merw), which boasted of Sāsānian descent, ¶ governor of Ḵh̲orāsān. In order to avenge the death of his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and Arabs (in Merw), he had under ʿAmr b. al-Lait̲h̲) stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken prisoner and brought to Sīstān, whence he escaped by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new attempt of a rising in Merw he fled for refuge to the Sāmānide Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmed in…

(Turkish “warm lake”), the most important mountain lake in Turkistan and one of the largest in the world, situated in 42° 30′ N. Lat. and between 76° 15′ and 78° 30′ E. Long., 5116 feet above sea level; the length of the lake is about 115 miles, the breadth up to 37 miles, the depth up to 1381 feet, and the area 2400 square miles. From the two chains of the Thian-S̲h̲an, the Kungei-Alatau (in the north) and the Terskei-Alatau (in the south) about 80 large and small mountain streams pour into th…

Muḥammad Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh, founder of a dynasty in Ḵh̲wārizm [q. v.]. His father Anūs̲h̲tagīn (or Nūs̲h̲tagīn) G̲h̲arča was in charge of the silver and crockery ( ṭas̲h̲t-k̲h̲āna) at the court of the Sald̲j̲ūḳs; the expenses of this branch of the court household were defrayed out of the tribute from Ḵh̲wārizm just as the expenses of administration of the clothing-depot ( d̲j̲āma-k̲h̲āna) were defrayed by the tribute from Ḵh̲ūzistān; Anūs̲h̲tagīn therefore, without actually governing Ḵh̲wārizm. held the title of a military governor ( s̲h̲ak̲h̲ne) of this country. He had his so…

, a town in Mongolia on the Ork̲h̲on, in the thirteenth century for a short time (about 1230—1260) the capital of the Mongol Emperors, now in ruins. The fullest accounts of the town are given among European travellers by Rubruk (Latin edition in Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires, 1839, iv. 345 sq.; transl. by W. W. Rockhill, Hakluyt Society, 2nd series, especially p. 220 with the translator’s notes) and among Muslim historians by Ḏj̲uwainī [q. v.], Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḏj̲ihān Gus̲h̲āi, ed. Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḳazwīnī, especially i. 169 sq. and 192. The fullest account of the ruins (by the memb…

, the fourth sovereign of the dynasty of the Ḏj̲alāirides (784—813 = 1382—1410) was the fourth son of Sultan Uwais. During the reign of his elder brother Ḥusain he became governor of Baṣra in 776 (1374-1375). In 784 (1382) he raised the banner of insurrection, took possession of the capital, Tibrīz, and had his brother executed. He was not however recognized as sovereign in all parts of the realm until after severe combats with his other brothers (786 = 1384). During the course of the following …

, Russian Azow, a town near the mouth of the Don; it is first mentioned in the fourteenth century (after 1316) as a Genoese, then (after 1332) as a Venetian colony under the name of Tana (from the ancient Tanaïs). The Turkish name has appeared on coins since 717 (1317). In the year 797 (1395) the town was destroyed by Tīmūr and taken possession of by the Ottomans in 880 (1475). The Russians (Cossacks) appeared before Azaḳ for the first time in 1589; in 1637 the town was captured and the whole Mu…

, sovereign of the Özbegs and founder of the power of this nation, a descendant of S̲h̲aiban, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son, born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the Hegira 816 = 1413-1414 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aibān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter found his death in a revolte; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲air was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siberia) at the age of 17…

, properly Aḥmad b. Faḍlān b. al-ʿAbbās b. Rās̲h̲id b. Ḥammād, Arab author, composer of an account ( risāla) of the embassy sent by the Caliph al-Muḳtadir to the king of the Volga Bulg̲h̲ārs [cf. bulg̲h̲ār, i. 786 sqq.]. As he was a client ( mawlā) of the Caliph and of the conqueror of Egypt Muḥammad b. Sulaimān [see Cairo, i. 818a] he was certainly not of Arab origin. He seems to have taken part in the embassy as a theologian and authority on religious matters. The real ambassador appointed by the government was Sūsan al-Rassī, a client of Nud̲h̲air al-Ḥ…

b. al-Lait̲h̲ al-Ṣaffār, the Ṣaffārid; he is said to have been in his youth first a mule-driver, then later a mason, and later to have attached himself to his brother Yaʿḳūb. Proclaimed commander at his death by the latter’s army (265 = 879), ʿAmr submitted to the Caliph and was invested with the provinces of Ḵh̲orāsān, Fārs, Iṣpahān, Sīstān, Karmān and Sind. He only obtained unquestioned mastery of Ḵh̲orāsān after strenuous struggles with his opponents Aḥmed b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḵh̲ud̲j̲ustānī, Rāfiʿ…

(Barmecides), a Persian family, which produced the first Persian ministers of the Caliphate. “Barmak” was not a personal name but denoted the rank of hereditary chief priest in the temple of Nawbahār in Balk̲h̲. The lands belonging to the temple were also in the hands of this family. These estates comprised an area of about 740 square miles (8 farsak̲h̲s long by ¶ 4 broad), or somewhat more than the principalities of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe together. These estates or part of them remained the property of the Barmakids at a later period; Yāḳūt (ii. 942) …

a large river in Siberia, in the basin of the Ob. Its two sources, the Blue and the White Irtis̲h̲, rise in the Great Altai; after their junction the river as far as Lake Zaisan bears the name “Black Irtis̲h̲”; after leaving the lake it flows for about 180 miles through steppe country as the “White” or “Slow Irtis̲h̲”, then for 60 miles with a stronger current as the “Rapid Irtis̲h̲” through a hilly country. At the town of Ustkamenogorsk it enters the Great Siberian plain which sinks away towar…

, a town in the upper Ili [q. v.] valley. A Muḥammadan kingdom is first mentioned in this region in the viith (xiiith) century: its founder, who is said to have previously been a brigand and horse-thief, is called Ōzār in Ḏj̲uwainī ( G. M. S., xvi., p. 57) and Būzār in Ḏj̲amāl Ḳuras̲h̲ī (in Barthold, Turkestan, i. 135 sq.). According to the latter, he assumed the title of Tog̲h̲rul Ḵh̲ān as ruler. The capital of the kingdom was Almali̊g̲h̲, first mentioned in this connection and later a great and wealthy commercial city. We owe our information about its…

, usually written bāṭmān or bātmān, in Ḳirghiz batpan, a Turkī word, applied to a “heavy weight” ( batpandai = “weighing a hundredweight”); it is probably connected with the verbal root bat “to sink” although F. W. K. Müller ( Sitzungsberichte Preuss. Akad., 1907, p. 847) says that the word is Middle Persian and “like many other Iranian words has reached Mongolian through Uigur” (examples are not given). What weight was originally meant by this word, is unknown; at the present day in the Turkī dialects as elsewhere (cf. the European “pound”, the Arabic “ mann” and “ riṭl” etc.), the same wor…

b. Iskandar, a S̲h̲aibānide, the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940 (1533-1534; the dragon year 1532-1333 is probably more accurately given as the year of the cycle) at Āfarīnkent in Miyānkāl (an island between the two arms of the Zarafs̲h̲ān). The father (Iskandar Ḵh̲ān), grandfather (Ḏj̲ānī Beg) and great-grandfather (Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammed, son of Abu ’l-Ḵh̲air [s. d.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935 = 1528-1529) had at the distribution of 918 (1512-1513) received Karmī…

, an Armenian town, the ruins of which are found on the right bank of the Arpa-Cai (called by the Armenians Ak̲h̲uryan) at a distance of about 20 miles from the point where that river flows into the Araxes. The origin of the name is unknown, though the suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Irānian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaϊtis). It is certain at any rate that the district was inhabited in the pre-christian period, pagan tombs having been found in the imm…

, a Turkish people in Persia. The name is said to be the Turkish ḳas̲h̲ḳā “horse with a white spot on its forehead” (W. Radloff, Versuch eines Wörter buches der türk. Dialecte, ii. 395). The Ḳas̲h̲ḳāi are said to be descended from the Turkish Ḵh̲alad̲j̲ (cf. also B. G. A., i. 158: Ḵh̲ald̲j̲) mentioned by al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī ( B. G. A., vol. i.) and later writers in the country between India and Slstān. The Ḵh̲alad̲j̲ are said to have migrated first to the Persian ʿIrāḳ where a district near Sāwa is still called Ḵh̲alad̲j̲istān; there is still said to be a Turkish speaking people there ¶ (private informa…

, a ruler of the Tīmūrid dynasty, grandson of Tīmūr, son of Mīrān-s̲h̲āh and Suyūn-beg Ḵh̲ānzāda, grand-daughter of the Ḵh̲ān of the Golden Horde, Özbeg; born in 786 ¶ (1384), died Wednesday, Rad̲j̲ab 16, 814 (Nov. 4, 1411), reigned in Samarḳand 807—812 (1405—1409). His education was entrusted to Tīmūr’s eldest wife, Sarāi Mulk Ḵh̲ānum. He is said to have distinguished himself on Tīmūr’s India campaign (1399) when only 15 years of age; he also took part in the so-called “Seven Years” (actually only 802—807=1399—1404) war i…

, a city in Turkestān, on the lower course of the Zarafs̲h̲ān. We have only the scantiest notices of the history of the city in pre-Muḥammadan times. There can be little doubt, however, that the Iranians had settlements and even towns on the Zarafs̲h̲ān at a very early period; even in the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon there was another town in Sogdiana besides Matakanda (Samarḳand) on the lower course of the river; but whether this town corresponded to the modern Buk̲h̲ārā may be questi…