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(Nehāvand), a town in western Iran, situated in the northern Zagros region. NEHĀVAND, a town in western Iran, situated in the northern Zagros region (lat 34˚11′ N, long 48˚22′ E, elev. 1,786 m/5,860 ft.). It lies some 90 km/50 miles south of Hamadan, from which it is separated by the massif of the Alvand Kuh, which rises to 3,572 m/11,716 feet, and from which streams provide Nehāvand and its agricultural hinterland with a plentiful water supply. Since Nehāvand lies on an historic route from central Iraq through Kermanshah (q.v.) to northern Iran, it has often been trave…

b. Vošmgīr, ẒAHĪR-AL-DAWLA, Ziyarid amir in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān (r. 967-78). Much of his reign was spent in fending off Samanid claims to sovereignty over the Caspian provinces. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 305-306 BĪSOTŪN, ẒAHĪR-AL-DAWLA ABŪ MANṢŪR b. Vošmgīr, the Ziyarid amir in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān (r. 357-67/967-78, not 356-66 as in Zambaur, pp. 210-11). The date of his father Vošmgīr’s (q.v.) death in a hunting accident is given by Ebn Meskawayh, Tajāreb II, p. 233, tr., V, p. 247, as 1 Moḥarram 357/7 December 967, and his…

a town on the north bank of the middle course of the Araxes (Aras) river of eastern Transcaucasia, former in Persian territory but now in the Republic of Azerbaijan. ORDUBĀD, a town on the north bank of the middle course of the Araxes (Aras) river of eastern Transcaucasia, former in Persian territory but now in the Republic of Azerbaijan. It is some 94 km north-northwest of Tabriz and lies at an altitude of 948 m. The Turco-Persian name “army town” implies a foundation during the period of the Mongol invasions or the ensuing Il-Khanid one, especially as the Il-Khanids …

(or Bāhalīm), military commanders and governors in northern India under the later Ghaznavid sultans in the late 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 5, pp. 489 BŪ ḤALĪM (or Bāhalīm) ŠAYBĀNĪ, a family of military commanders and governors in northern India under the later Ghaznavid sultans in the late 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries. The nesba Šaybān need only indicate an attempt to acquire an affiliation to the great Arab tribe of Šaybān of Bakr b. Wāʾel. In fact, the family seems to ha…

(d. 809), HĀRUN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-ALLĀH, the fifth caliph of the ʿAbbasid dynasty (r. 786-809), the third son of the caliph al-Mahdi. A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 1, pp. 17-20 HĀRUN AL-RAŠID, HĀRUN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-ALLĀH (d. Ṭus, 3 Jomādā II 193/24 March 809), the fifth caliph of the ʿAbbasid dynasty (r. 170-93/786-809), the third son of the caliph al-Mahdi and second son borne him by the slave concubine Ḵayzorān. He was born in Ray, either on 26 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 145/17 March 763 or 1 Moḥarram 1…

a town of central Persia on the present Yazd-Ardestān-Kāšān road along the southern edge of the Dašt-e Kavīr, forty miles northwest of Yazd. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 370-371 ARDAKĀN-e YAZD, a town of central Persia on the present Yazd-Ardestān-Kāšān road along the southern edge of the Dašt-e Kavīr, forty miles northwest of Yazd, in 32° 18’ north latitude and 53° 50’ east longitude, and an elevation of 3,280 feet above sea level. It is possible that Ardakān is the Artacana of Ptolemy ( Geography 6.5.4), described as a town of Parthia in t…

Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 6, pp. 615-616 ČAḠĀNRŪD (Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya, rising in what in medieval Islamic times were known as the Bottamān mountains and flowing southwards through the principality of Čaḡānīān into the Oxus just above the important crossing-point of Termeḏ (modern Termez). Hence it flows from what is now the Gi…

a medieval Islamic town on the right bank of the lower Jaxartes in Central Asia some 350 km from where the river enters the Aral Sea. A version of this article is available in print Volume XIV, Fascicle 5, pp. 533 JAND, a medieval Islamic town on the right bank of the lower Jaxartes in Central Asia some 350 km from where the river enters the Aral Sea; hence the Aral often appears in geographical works as the “Sea of Jand.” The town is first mentioned by the geographers of the 10th century as an Oghuz (Ḡozz, q.v.) Turkish settlement. Nothing is known of its prior history. Sov…

a dynasty of medieval Islamic eastern Iran which ruled from 247/861 to 393/1003. From a base in their home province of Sistān, the first Saffarids built up a vast if transient military empire, at one point invading Iraq and threatening Baghdad. SAFFARIDS, a dynasty of medieval Islamic eastern Iran which ruled from 247/861 to 393/1003. From a base in their home province of Sistān, the first Saffarids built up a vast if transient military empire which at one point stretched from the borders of Afghanistan and India in the east to Fārs, A…

(472-546/1079-1151), local historian of Herat in the Saljuq period. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 350 ABŪ NAṢR FĀMĪ, ṮEQAT-AL-DĪN ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN B. ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR B. ʿOṮMĀN, 472-546/1079-1151, local historian of Herat in the Saljuq period. The scanty biographical information we possess derives only from Samʿānī [Leiden], fol. 418b) and from Ebn al-ʿEmād ( Šaḏarāt al-ḏahab, Cairo, 1350-51/1931-33, IV, p. 140). These authors describe him as pious and modest, a ḥāfeẓ, traditionist, and copyist of sacred texts, from whom many scho…

(Afrighid dynasty), the name given by the Khwarazmian scholar Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī to the dynasty of rulers in his country, with the ancient title of Ḵᵛārazmšāh. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 743-745 ĀL-E AFRĪḠ (Afrighid dynasty), the name given by the Khwarazmian scholar Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī to the dynasty of rulers in his country, with the ancient title of Ḵᵛārazmšāh. According to him, the Afrighids ruled from 305 A.D. (year 616 of the Seleucid era), through the Arab conquests under Qotayba b. Mos…

(“Manual for secretaries”), a work composed by the celebrated Baghdad scholar probably of Khorasanian mawlā origin, Ebn Qotayba (213-76/828-89). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 446 ADAB AL-KĀTEB (“Manual for secretaries”), a work composed by the celebrated Baghdad scholar probably of Khorasanian mawlā origin, Ebn Qotayba (213-76/828-89). It was written during the caliphate of Motawakkel (r. 232-47/847-61) and dedicated to his vizier, Fatḥ b. Ḵāqān. Although its title makes one think of the great line of…

(or ʿAlī b. ʿOṯmān b. Ḥarb), ephemeral Saffarid amir of the so-called “third Saffarid dynasty”. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 849 ʿALĪ B. ḤARB (or ʿAlī b. ʿOṯmān b. Ḥarb), ephemeral Saffarid amir of the so-called “third Saffarid dynasty” (described in the sources as the “ molūk of Nīmrūz”); reigned briefly and died in 622/1225. In the early 7th/13th century, Sīstān, along with all the eastern Islamic lands, seems to have fallen into disorder with the irruption of the Mongols in 614/1217 and after. An addit…

a town of the medieval Islamic region of Arrān, the classical Caucasian Albania, lying in the triangle between the Kor and Aras (Araxes) rivers. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 2 BAYLAQĀN, Armenian form Pʿaytakaran (cf. Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge, Leipzig, 1903, p. 457), a town of the medieval Islamic region ofArrān, the classical Caucasian Albania, lying in the triangle between the Kor and Aras (Araxes) rivers, in what is today the Mīl steppe in Soviet Azerbaijan. In Islam…

B. MANŪČEHR B. QĀBŪS, ruler of the Daylamī dynasty of the Ziyarids in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān during the early 11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 2, pp. 139-140 ANŪŠERVĀN B. MANŪČEHR B. QĀBŪS, ruler of the Daylamī dynasty of the Ziyarids in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān during the early 5th/11th century. He was the grandson of the celebrated amir and prose stylist, Šams-al-Maʿālī Qābūs b. Vošmgīr, and his father, Manūčehr, was the son-in-law of Maḥmūd of Ḡazna. Toward the end of Manūčehr’s reig…

Turkish commander and rebel under the early Ghaznavid sultan Masʿūd I (421-32/1030-41), d. 426/1035. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 647 AḤMAD INALTIGIN (in the sources, usually spelt Yenāltegīn or, erroneously, Nīaltegīn), Turkish commander and rebel under the early Ghaznavid sultan Masʿūd I (421-32/1030-41), d. 426/1035. Aḥmad had been treasurer under Maḥmūd and in favor with him. When Masʿūd succeeded Maḥmūd in 421/1030, he made a clean sweep of the adherents of the old regime (Ma…

a distinguished family of officials, littérateurs, ʿ olamāʾ, and traditionists from Bayhaq (modern Sabzavār). A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 6-7 ʿANBARĪĀN, a distinguished family of officials, littérateurs, ʿ olamāʾ, and traditionists from Bayhaq (modern Sabzavār). Their activities in public and scholarly life from the 4th/10th to the 6th/12th centuries are known above all through Ebn Fondoq’s Tārīḵ-e Bayhaq (ed. A. Bahmanyār, Tehran, 1317 Š./1938, pp. 119-22, 182-83). The family was probably Iranian in origin, but, according …

vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 370 ABŪ SAHL ḴOJANDĪ, vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. He served Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (451-92/1059-99) as that ruler’s second vizier, succeeding Abū Bakr b. Abī Ṣāleḥ, probably in the early part of the reign. All that is known of his background is that he had been secretary in the Ghaznavid dīvāns since the time of Sultan Masʿūd. At some unspecified date he fell from favor and was arrested and blinded at the sultan’s orders. C. Edmund Bosworth Bibliograp…

B. ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD BALʿAMĪ TAMĪMĪ, vizier to the Samanid amir Naṣr b. Aḥmad (r. 913-42), father of the vizier and historian Amirak Baḷʿamī. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 573-574 BALʿAMĪ, ABU’L- FAŻL MOḤAMMAD B. ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD BALʿAMĪ TAMĪMĪ, vizier to the Samanid amir Naṣr b. Aḥmad, father of the vizier and historian Abū ʿAlī Moḥammad b. Moḥammad Balʿamī (see amīrak balʿamī) and thus member of a distinguished family in the service of the rulers of Transoxania and Khorasan. The unusual nesba Balʿamī is explained by Samʿānī, Ket…

city on the desert fringes of southwestern Mesopotamia; known in pre-Islamic times as the capital of the Lakhmid Arab dynasty, clients of the Sasanians, it survived as an urban settlement into the early centuries of the Islamic period. A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 3, pp. 322-323 ḤIRA, a city on the desert fringes of southwestern Mesopotamia; known in pre-Islamic times as the capital of the Lakhmid Arab dynasty, clients of the Sasanians. It survived as an urban settlement into the early centuries of the Islamic period. Figure 1. The region of Ḥira …