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an important early Arabic historical text by Ebn Aʿṯam Kufi (d. 314/926?), which was translated, at least in part, into Persian towards the end of the 6th/12th century.A version of this article is available in printVolume XVI, Fascicle 4, pp. 348-351 KETĀB  AL- FOTUḤ (or Taʾriḵ al-fotuḥ), an important early Arabic historical text by Ebn Aʿṯam Kufi (d. 314/​926?), which was translated, at least in part, into Persian towards the end of the 6th/12th century. Though the Persian translation enjoyed considerable popularity and has long been well …

one of the most eminent Iranian scholars of the early Abbasid era, author of a celebrated commentary on the Qorʾān as well as the most important of the classical Arabic historical texts still extant. ṬABARI, ABU JAʿFAR MOḤAMMAD B. Jarir (224-310/839-923), one of the most eminent Iranian scholars of the early Abbasid era, author of a celebrated commentary on the Qorʾān as well as the most important of the classical Arabic historical texts still extant.BIOGRAPHY Sources. Despite Ṭabari’s intellectual fame and enduring significance, there are numerous problems involved in…

Abū Salama Ḥafṣ b. Sulaymān al-Khallāl (d. 132/750) was a financier and director of the ʿAbbāsid daʿwa (propaganda mission) in Kufa and later the first Muslim official known to have held the title of wazīr (vizier). The name of Abū Salama appears in the original list (dīwān) of ʿAbbāsid partisans ( Akhbār al-dawla, 191). Like Bukayr b. Māhān (d. 127/744–5), his father-in-law and mentor in the daʿwa, Abū Salama was a wealthy mawlā (client) of the Musliyya tribe (or of the Sabīʿ of Hamdān, according to other sources). He acquired his nisba from his residence in the Khallālīn quarter of …

Bihāfarīd b. Farwardīn (d. c131/748 or 749), also written Bihʾāfrīd and other variants, was the leader of a heterodox Zoroastrian socio-religious movement in Khurāsān in the later period of the Umayyad rule (c. 129/747), around the time of the ʿAbbāsid revolution (mid-second/eighth century), and was executed by Abū Muslim (leader of the ʿAbbāsid revolution, killed in 137/755). Although Bihāfarīd is rarely mentioned in conventional historical sources (accounts by al-Azdī, Gardīzī, and al-Thaʿālibī being notable exceptions), there is a fair amount of in…

ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Azdī (d. 142/759–60) was the first governor of Khurāsān appointed directly by an ʿAbbāsid caliph. Prior to this, he had been one of the seventy missionaries (duʿāt) who formed the core of the ʿAbbāsid daʿwa in Khurāsān. He appeared in the Akhbār al-ʿAbbās (218, 221) as a representative from Abīward, most likely the home-town of his family (several of whose members figure in the history of the ʿAbbāsid revolution). After the outbreak of the revolt he was an officer in the army that invaded Jurjān, and he wa…

Asadābādh (also Asadāwādh, Asadābād) has been the name of several towns in Iran and Afghanistan. In the early Islamic period, the easternmost Asadābādh was located in the Murghāb river valley, twenty-one farsakhs (roughly one hundred twenty-five kilometres) north of Merv al-Rūdh. Another Asadābādh was near the western border of Khurāsān, on the outskirts of Bayhaq, about halfway along the highway leading from Damghān to Naysābūr; it was supposedly founded in 120/737–8 by the governor, Asad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Qasrī. The third (and only important) Asadābādh was in the Jibāl, one marḥala …

Abū l-Nuʿmān Ibrāhīm b. (Mālik) al-Ashtar al-Nakhaʿī (d. 72/691) participated in several important events of the Muslim Second Civil War ( fitna). Concerning his early life, there is only a report that he was at the battle of Ṣiffin, in 37/657 (al-Ṭabarī, 1:3330), but he could, at that time, hardly have been more than a boy, as he was still described as a young man ( fatan ḥadathan) in 66/685 (al-Ṭabarī, 2:615). Whatever his early achievements, the mere fact that his father was Mālik al-Ashtar (d. 38/658–9), a major figure in the Shīʿī pantheon of heroes, coupl…

ʿAbbāsid Revolution is the term used to describe the process that led to the fall of the Umayyads and the establishment of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty in the mid-second/eighth century. 1. The daʿwa Information about the origins and development of the ʿAbbāsid Revolution may be found in the usual corpus of classical Islamic historical texts, with the most important account still being that of al-Ṭabarī, although it can now be supplemented in important ways by texts that have been more recently edited and published, notably al-Balādhurī's Ansāb al-ashrāf (vol. 3, ed. ʿAbd al- ʿAzīz al-Dūr…

Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. ʿAbdallāh b. al-ʿAbbās al-Manṣūr was the second ʿAbbāsid caliph (r. 136–58/754–75). 1. The ʿAbbāsid Revolution Surprisingly little is known about the life of Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr in the period before the ʿAbbāsid Revolution. Since he is said to have been between 63 and 68 when he died (al-Ṭabarī, 390), he could have been born as early as 90/708–9. However, the date is likely somewhat later, as he was supposedly born at the ʿAbbāsid estate of al-Ḥumayma in Jordan, and, accord…

Abū l-Mundhir Asad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Qasrī (d. 120/737–8) was twice vice-regent of Khurāsān on behalf of his brother Khālid, governor of Iraq and the provinces of Iraq and Khurāsān for the Umayyad caliph Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 102–25/724–43). Asad was first named acting governor of Khurāsān in 106/724–5 during inter-tribal fighting among the Arabs and a mutiny of the garrison at al-Barūqān (al-Ṭabarī, 2:1473–77) and the ineffective campaign of Muslim b. Saʿīd against the Turks of Transoxania. Asad is said to have been assisted by an adviser named Tawba, a mawlā who familiarised him…

Bukayr b. Wishāḥ (d. 77/696–7) was recognised briefly as governor of Khurāsān (c. 72–4/692–4), during the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān (r. 65–86/685–705). There is much disagreement in the sources about the identity of Bukayr. Al-Ṭabarī and sources that follow him generally give his patronymic as Wishāḥ, but a number of other important sources, such as al-Yaʿqūbī (d. early fourth/tenth century), Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064), and Gardīzī (fl. fifth/eleventh century), have Wassāj; orthographically, the two are easily c…

Āmū Daryā is the modern name for the major Central Asian river draining most of the watershed of the northern Hindu Kush, western Pamir, and southern Buttam mountains into the basin of the Aral Sea (now largely dried up by the diversion of the water for agriculture and other uses). The names given by geographers to the many tributaries that form the Āmū Daryā differ greatly, and views have changed over which is the main course and source of the river ( daryā is a Persian word for a major river). The two most important tributaries are the Wakhsh (whence Oxus, the common Englis…