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a Shiʿite Arab tribe of Howayza (Ḥawīza) district in Ḵūzestān. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 695 BANĪ SĀLA (not to be confused with the Āl Bū Ṣāleḥ of southern Iraq), a Shiʿite Arab tribe of Howayza (Ḥawīza) district in Ḵūzestān. Their territory, centered on Šowayb, extends some 25 miles along the banks of the Karḵa river southwest of Ahvāz as far as Šeyḵ Moḥammad and into the Tigris-Karḵa marshes ( Persia, pp. 378-79). Their numbers were estimated earlier this century at 15,000 (Lorimer, Gazetteer II, pp. 123, 1654-55) or 2,100 families (F…

regnal title assumed by Karim Khan Zand (r. 1164-93/1751-79) after he established himself at Shiraz in 1765. It is recorded in variants wakil-al-raʿiya, wakil-e raʿiat, and wakil-al-ḵalāʾeq, all meaning “deputy of the people.” WAKIL-AL-RAʿĀYĀ, well known regional title assumed by Karim Khan Zand (r. 1164-93/1751-79) after he established himself at Shiraz in 1179/1765. It is recorded in variants wakil-al-raʿiya, wakil-e raʿiat, and wakil-al-ḵalāʾeq, all meaning “deputy of the people,” and marked a significant change of polarity in the wording of Karim Khan’s title from wakil-al-…

(1176-1243/1762-63 to 1827-28), literary biographer, poet, and historian of the early Qajar period. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 154 ʿABD-AL -RAZZĀQ BEG B. NAJAF-QOLĪ KHAN DONBOLĪ (1176-1243/1762-63 to 1827-28), literary biographer, poet, and historian of the early Qajar period. ʿAbd-al-Razzāq came of a family of turkicized Kurds, the Donbolī, who had long been dominant in the region of Ḵoy and Salmās in western Azerbaijan. His father Naǰaf-qolī served in Nāder Shah’s army and was appointed governor general ( beglerbegī) of Tabrīz on hi…

court secretary and historiographer to Nāder Shah Afšār (r. 1148-60/1736-47). A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 8, pp. 844-845 ASTARĀBĀDĪ, MĪRZĀ (MOḤAMMAD) MAHDĪ KHAN B. MOḤAMMAD-NAṢĪR, court secretary and historiographer to Nāder Shah Afšār (r. 1148-60/1736-47). Despite his position as an eminent public figure and scholar during the reign of Nāder Shah, little is known for certain of the life of Mīrzā Mahdī, not even the dates of his birth and death. The pen-name Kawkab or Kawkabī, by which he is sometimes called, is also in dispute (Šahīdī, p. md). The …

(Banu Turuf), a large Shiʿite Arab tribe of Howayza (Ḥawīza) district in Ḵūzestān, mostly sedentary, centered north of Howayza between Sūsangerd and Bostān (Besaytīn). A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 696 BANĪ ṬOROF (Banu Turuf), a large Shiʿite Arab tribe of Howayza (Ḥawīza) district in Ḵūzestān, mostly sedentary, centered north of Howayza between Sūsangerd and Bostān (Besaytīn). In the early years of this century their population was put at 20,000 (Lorimer, Gazetteer II, p. 119), and in the 1930s at 8,000 families. They are orga…

an Arab tribe of western Ḵūzestān, both settled and nomadic, raising sheep and camels. Their range lies between Howayza and Ahvāz. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 695-696 BANĪ TAMĪM, an Arab tribe of western Ḵūzestān, both settled and nomadic, raising sheep and camels. Their range lies between Howayza and Ahvāz, where they are also known as the Banī Mālek ( Persia, pp. 378, 380; Field, pp. 198-99). Their numbers were estimated at 10,000 persons before World War I, when they also extended south on the Kārūn as far as Qājārīya (Lorimer, Gazetteer II, p…

actual power was exercised for most of this sixty years not by the nominal ruler but by military leaders or other court factions, and for a brief time by Solaymān II, whose reign was an attempted Safavid restoration. The remaining parts of Nāder’s empire were now the sphere of the Zand dynasty in western Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 587-589 AFSHARIDS, a dynasty (1148-1210/1736-96; Table 16) founded by Nāder Shah Afšār upon the abolition of the Safavid dynasty in 1148/1736. What follows is an outline history of the…

nephew of Nāder Shah, claiming the Afsharid throne briefly (1748-49) A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 75-76 EBRĀHĪM SHAH AFŠĀR, nephew of Nāder Shah, claiming the Afsharid throne briefly (1161-62/1748-49). Ebrāhīm was born the second of four sons of Moḥammad-Ebrāhīm Beg, Nāder’s younger brother, and was first named Moḥammad-ʿAlī. After his father’s death on a campaign in 1152/1739, he took the name Ebrāhīm Beg. During the 1740s he was military commander ( sardār) of Azerbaijan and campaigned successfully against the Safavid preten…

a numerous and historically important Shiʿite Arab tribe of northwestern Ḵūzestān, southern Lorestān, and adjacent parts of Iraq. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 695 BANĪ LĀM, a numerous and historically important Shiʿite Arab tribe of northwestern Ḵūzestān, southern Lorestān, and adjacent parts of Iraq. Their range extends from the foothills of the Pošt-e Kūh south to the Tigris at ʿAmāra, and east to the Karḵa south of Šūš. Once nomadic pastoralists, the Banī Lām are now mainly seden…

(?-1751), English merchant, seaman and shipbuilder for Nāder Shah Afšār. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 370-371 ELTON, Captain JOHN (?-1751), English merchant, seaman and shipbuilder for Nāder Shah Afšār. From 1734 onward the British merchants of the Russia Company were permitted to transit Russia to trade with Persia, crossing the Caspian Sea in Russian vessels. In 1739 Elton, an “enterprising but indiscreet Englishman” (Malcolm, II, p. 102) arrived at Estarābād (Astarābād) a…

a Shiʿite Arab tribe of Howayza (Ḥawīza) district in Ḵūzestān. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 694-695 BANĪ ḤARDĀN, a Shiʿite Arab tribe of Howayza (Ḥawīza) district in Ḵūzestān. Small in number (they were estimated at 2,500 persons early in the century, and at 500 families, i.e., roughly the same number, in the 1930s), their range is comparatively extensive: north of Ahvāz, west of Ahvāz to Howayza, between the Kārūn and the Karḵa rivers, and inland from the left bank of the Ā…

a Shiʿite tribe of Ḵūzestān. They range east and south of Ahvāz, between the Kārūn and Jarrāḥī rivers, to the south of Band-e Qīr and north of Māred. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 876 BĀWĪYA, a Shiʿite tribe of Ḵūzestān. They range east and south of Ahvāz, between the Kārūn and Jarrāḥī rivers, to the south of Band-e Qīr and north of Māred. Estimated at 20,000 individuals in the early years of this century, of which 18,500 were nomadic, and 2,320 families in the 1930s, they were formerly camel…

(r. 1789-97), founder of the Qajar dynasty. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 602-605 ĀḠĀ MOḤAMMAD KHAN QĀJĀR (r. 1203-12/1789-97), founder of the Qajar dynasty (q.v.). He was born about 1155/1742, the eldest son of the chief of the Qavānlū (Qoyunlū) clan of the Qajars of Astarābād, Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan, whose father, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Khan, had been executed by Ṭahmāsb II (perhaps at the instigation of the future Nāder Shah). Subsequently the Qavānlū and the Ašāqabāš branch of the Qajars …

a history of the Zand Dynasty (1751-94) by Mirzā Moḥammad Abu’l-Ḥasan Ḡaffāri. A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 1, pp. 108-109 GOLŠAN-E MORĀD, a history of the Zand Dynasty (1164-1209/1751-94) by Mirzā Moḥammad Abu’l-Ḥasan Ḡaffāri. Ḡaffāri’s father, Mirzā Moʿezz-al-Din Moḥammad, was the governor of Kāšān and Qom under Karim Khan Zand. He had his son trained as a painter, but later let him follow in his footsteps as a secretary and administrator (several of Abu’l-Ḥasan’s paintings, signed …

(also Amir-Ḥaydari; Neʿmat-Allāhi), mutually hostile urban moieties of Safavid and post-Safavid Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 2, pp. 70-73 ḤAYDARI AND NEʿMATI (also Amir-Ḥaydari; Neʿmat-Allāhi), mutually hostile urban moieties of Safavid and post-Safavid Iran. From the late ninth/fifteenth century up until recent decades, a number of cities and towns of Iran were perceived as being divided into two groupings of adjacent wards ( maḥalla), one known as the Ḥaydari-kāna and the other as the Neʿmati-kāna, the respective (male) inhabita…

viceroy of the Afsharid state of Khorasan, 1161-68/1748-54. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 795 ʿALAM KHAN ʿARAB-E ḴOZAYMA, AMIR, viceroy of the Afsharid state of Khorasan, 1161-68/1748-54. The son of Esmāʿīl Khan, one of Nāder Shah’s chief officers, ʿAlam Khan campaigned for Nāder Shah with his father at the head of the contingent of Ḵozayma Arabs (who had been settled in Khorasan since the 2nd/8th century). After Nāder’s death in 1160/1747, most of his heterogeneous army brok…

a chieftain of the Haft Lang branch of the Baḵtīārī and paramount chief (īlḵānī) of the tribe. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 285 ABU’L- FATḤ KHAN BAḴTĪĀRĪ, a chieftain of the Haft Lang branch of the Baḵtīārī and paramount chief ( īlḵānī) of the tribe. Abu’l-Fatḥ was governor of Isfahan at the time of Nāder Shah’s death in 1160/1747; he was confirmed in this post by Nāder’s immediate successors, ʿĀdel Shah, Ebrāhīm, and Šāhroḵ. When ʿAlī Mardān of the Čahār Lang Baḵtīārī and Karīm Khan Zand captured th…

(r. 1195-99/1781-85), fourth of the Zand rulers. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 869 ʿALĪ-MORĀD KHAN ZAND (r. 1195-99/1781-85), fourth of the Zand rulers. After the death of ʿAlī-Morād’s father, Qayṭas Khan of the Hazāra clan of the Zands, his mother (a sister of Zakī Khan) married Ṣādeq Khan of the Bagala clan; ʿAlī-Morād was thus nephew to Zakī and to Ṣādeq and his brother Karīm Khan the Wakīl, and half-brother to Ṣādeq’s son Jaʿfar, his own successor. On the Wakīl’s death i…

Its etymology is obscure: the term appears in Middle Persian only in the compound argbed a military rank and, though evidently in use, does not occur frequently in New Persian before the early 17th century. It is used also by Persian writers of Central Asia and northern India to designate the fortress of a city. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 395-396 ARG (or ARK), the inner fortress or citadel of a walled city. The arg may also serve as the residence of a ruler and include other court and government offices. From Safavid through Qajar times, the arg of a p…

(ca. 1705-1779), “The Wakil,” ruler of Persia (except Khorasan) from Shiraz during 1751-79. The Zand were a pastoral tribe of the Lak branch of the northern Lors, ranging between the inner Zagros and the Hamadān plains, centered on the villages of Pari and Kamāzān in the vicinity of Malāyer. A version of this article is available in print Volume XV, Fascicle 6, pp. 561-564 KARIM KHAN ZAND [Moḥammad-Karim] (b. ca. 1705; d. Shiraz 13 Ṣafar 1193/1 March 1779; FIGURE 1), “The Wakil,” ruler of Persia (except Khorasan) from Shiraz during 1164-93/1751-79. The Zand we…