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ophthalmology. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 1, pp. 39-44 ČAŠM-PEZEŠKĪ, ophthalmology. In ancient Persia and the first two centuries of Islam. Although no direct information about eye therapy in pre-Islamic Persia has come down, in the Dēnkard ophthalmologists ( dīdbān) are mentioned as professional specialists ( Dēnkard 8.38.12 from the Sagādum, ed. Madan, II, p. 756 line 9; ed. Dresden, p. 84 fol. 124 line 5, tr. W. E. West, in Pahlavi Texts IV, SBE 37, p. 123; Christensen, Iran Sass., p. 419; see also Elgood, 1970, p. 56). There are grounds for belie…

“brand.” According to Rašīd-al-Dīn Fażl-Allāh, “The tamḡā was a special emblem or mark that the Turkish and Mongol peoples stamped on decrees and also branded on their flocks.” Each of the twenty-four tribes of the Oḡuz Turkmen had its own tamḡā, with which it branded its flocks. A version of this article is available in print Volume VI, Fascicle 6, pp. 565-568 DĀḠ (Av. daxša-, Bal. daḵta), brand, a mark made by touching the body of an animal or human being with a heated iron implement or, by extension, a lasting mark of any kind (e.g., Hedāyat, s.v.; Nafīsī, …

"hospital." The oldest Iranian hospital about which we have some information was that at Jondīšāpūr (earlier Bēt Lapaṭ), which, with the attached school of mediꏂcine, was founded at an unknown date. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 257-261 BĪMĀRESTĀN, hospital (from Persian bīmār “sick,” Pahlavi wēmār, with the suffix denoting place -stān). Both bīmārestān and the shorter form mārestān entered Arabic, as did various Persian terms for hospital officials, e.g., mehtar(-e) šarāb-ḵāna, applied to a head of dispensary (Qalqašandī, Ṣobḥ al-aʿšā V…

in medieval Muslim literature any vegetable, mineral, or animal substance that acts on the human body, whether as a medicament, a poison, or an antidote. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 5, 6, pp. 555-562 DRUGS (Pers. dārū, Pers-Ar. dawā, pl. adwīa), in medieval Muslim literature any vegetable, mineral, or animal substance that acts on the human body, whether as a medicament, a poison, or an antidote. Pre-Islamic Persia. Information on drugs in the pre-Islamic period is very scarce and, apart from clues in sources from after the Isl…

( dandān-pezeškī) in Persia. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 3, pp. 292-296 DENTISTRY ( dandān-pezeškī) in Persia. No specific information about dentistry in pre-Islamic Persia has survived, but a reference in the Avesta ( Vd. 2.29) indicates that oral and dental diseases were not uncommon among Iranians. Significant advances in medicine were achieved, particularly at the college hospital at Gondēšāpūr (in the Islamic period Jondīšāpūr), which was founded under the Sasanians and continued to functio…

Abū al-Najm Amīr al-Juyūsh (d. 487/1094), was the renowned commander of the armies ( amīr al-juyūsh) and vizier at the time of the Fāṭimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustanṣir. He was originally an Armenian serving the Syrian emir of Ṭarābulus, Jamāl al-Dawla Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿAmmār, who brought him up from childhood and became his patron, whence his name al-Jamālī.Because of his military and political capabilities and skills, he rapidly rose through the ranks in emir Jamāl al-Dawla’s administration (Ibn Ṣayrafī, 55; al-Sijilliyyāt, 63; al-Maqrīzī, al-Muqaffā, 2/394), and so, in Rabīʿ…

veterinary medicine. A version of this article is available in print Volume VI, Fascicle 6, pp. 619-623 i. In the Pre-Islamic Period Widespread and developed animal husbandry, which was a prominent feature of Iranian economic and social life in ancient times, could not have prospered as it did without commensurate veterinary practice. The horse (see asb), ox (see cattle), and dog (see also domestic animals) were venerated allies of the Iranian horseman and herdsman. The cow, as the benign source of livelihood, and th…

Amīr al-Muʾminīn (‘prince’, ‘commander’ or ‘leader’ of the ‘believers’), a title generally denoting the head of the Muslim community. This title, first bestowed on those caliphs who were the immediate successors of the Prophet Muḥammad, was later used more widely and applied honorifically to many Muslim rulers of various times and regions. Although not all of them in fact enjoyed great political power or high religious status, the link between their title and the office of caliph lent it much pre…

Arabic and Persian lexical sources provide a multiplicity of meanings for the word bundār, which has been used to denote a tax-collector, customs officer, notable or headman. The word also has extended commercial connotations such as hoarder or profiteer (Awḥadī, 30; Ānandrāj, 1/773; Burhān, 1/304–305; Nafīsī, 1/648; see also Muʿīn, 1/584 who defines this term as ‘postmaster’, ṣāḥib al-barīd, or ‘courier’). Bundār appears in works of Persian poetry with the meaning of ‘notable person’, ‘headman’, ‘leader’ or someone who monopolises goods (Nāṣir-i Khusraw,…

Barmakids, the title of the most famous family of dīwān-sālār (chancellors) and viziers during the ʿAbbāsid period. They were actively involved in the political history of Islam between 132/750 and 187/803.Conversion to IslamThere are many obscure aspects to the Muslim conquest of Balkh and the Barmaks’ conversion to Islam. There are differences of opinion among historians about the date of this incident (see Gibb, 16, 31–32) and it is still not clear how the Barmaks converted to Islam, or whether the first Muslim Barmakid was…

Historiography, in its technical sense may be defined to cover the description and recording of various aspects of human life in the fields of politics and society. The definition of historiography in this article is the study of the motives, goals, uses, methods, schools, and genres of history writing, the views of historians of the Islamic world in describing the conditions of its inhabitants, and the methods they used in compiling and organising history. This article concentrates on h…

Fadak, the name of a village in the vicinity of Medina, at a distance of two days travel. Half of the agricultural land of Fadak was the personal property of the Prophet Muḥammad. It draws its later significance and fame from a dispute that erupted between two major groups of Muslims regarding its status after the Prophet’s demise. The crux of this disagreement was whether, when the Prophet passed away, the land of Fadak became the property of his daughter Fāṭima (q.v.), or the collective property of the Muslims to be administered by the caliph.The raids and military campaigns directed b…

The issue of categories has been the subject of some debate among Muslim philosophers regarding such matters as whether Aristotle himself authored the book, what precisely the categories are, the exact number of categories, and whether the Categories should be classified as a work of logic ( manṭiq) or metaphysics, or indeed as a bridge between the two disciplines.Logic and MetaphysicsAristotle’s Categories represents an attempt to systematically address the basic philosophical issues from a new perspective. As such, it provoked a discussion that lasted t…

Ḥāmid b. al-ʿAbbās, Abū Muḥammad (d. 311/923), was an administrator and vizier to the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Muqtadir Bi’llāh (regnal periods: 295/908, 296–317/908–929, and 317–320/929–932). Al-Dhahabī (Siyar, 14/356) gives his kunya as Abū al-Faḍl.There is little information about Ḥāmid’s life before he assumed the vizierate. Sources relate that he was born in 223/838, and if the toponymic ‘al-Khurāsānī’ often given to him is accurate (see al-Dhahabī, Siyar, 14/356), he was probably of Persian origin. A poetic lampoon ( hujwiyya) of him by the Baghdādī poet Ibn Bassām (d. …

Al-Ālūsī, a Baghdad family that produced distinguished scholars in jurisprudence ( fiqh), Qurʾānic exegesis ( tafsīr) and literature in the 13th/19th and 14th/early 20th century. One of his ancestors fled Baghdad in 7th/13th century at the time of Hulāgū’s invasion and moved to Ālūs, where his descendants stayed until the 11th/17th century before returning to Baghdad (al-Atharī, 7–8). The following, in chronological order, are the best-known members of the family: 1. Sayyid Maḥmūd, who was a descendant of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī on his father’s side and of Ḥasan b. ʿAlī th…

al-Ḥasan b. Sahl (d. 236/850), an ʿAbbāsid official and vizier under caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 198–218/833–32), and brother of al-Faḍl b. Sahl ‘Dhū al-Riyāsatayn’ (‘the man of the two chieftainships’) (d. 202/818).There is little information about al-Ḥasan’s life before he became an ʿAbbāsid official. Some biographers trace his family’s lineage to the ancient kings of Iran (Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā, 221). Sahl, the father of al-Ḥasan and al-Faḍl, was the son of Zādhānfarrukh, and came from the village of Ṣābir Nīthā in Sīb Aʿlā, a dependency of Kūfa (al-Jahshiyārī, 182; Yāqūt, 3/359). The nisba ‘a…

ʿAbbās b. Abī al-Futūḥ, al-Afḍal Rukn al-Dīn of the Zīrids, a vizier of the Fāṭimids from 548 to 549/1153 to 1154. He was originally a prince of the family of Ibn Bādīs al-Ṣanhājī (of Banū Zīrī), who had been governors of Ifrīqiya in the 6th/12th century. As a result of conflicts within the family, his father Abū al-Futūḥ was expelled from Ifrīqiya in 509/1115 by his brother ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā, and he was forced to go with his wife Bullāra and his young son ʿAbbās to Alexandria, where they were warmly a…

Ḥāmid b. al-ʿAbbās, Abū Muḥammad (d. 311/923), was an administrator and vizier to the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Muqtadir Bi’llāh (regnal periods: 295/908, 296–317/908–929, and 317–320/929–932). Al-Dhahabī (Siyar, 14/356) gives his kunya as Abū al-Faḍl.There is little information about Ḥāmid’s life before he assumed the vizierate. Sources relate that he was born in 223/838, and if the toponymic ‘al-Khurāsānī’ often given to him is accurate (see al-Dhahabī, Siyar, 14/356), he was probably of Persian origin. A poetic lampoon ( hujwiyya) of him by the Baghdādī poet Ibn Bassām (d. …

Ḥisba, an Islamic social institution that regulated social relations, commercial activity, and public morality in accordance with religious and customary laws. The ḥisba is within the broad framework of ‘enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong’ ( al-amr bi al-maʿrūf wa al-nahy ʿan al-munkar), the duty of every believer to correct a perceived ‘wrong’ by thought, word, or deed (Cook, passim, but esp. 32–34). The focus of this article is limited to the responsibilities of the market inspector ( ʿāmil al-sūq or ṣāḥib al-sūq, and ultimately, muḥtasib), and his administrative role ( ḥisb…

ʿAbbāsa was a famous woman of the ʿAbbāsid court. She was a daughter of the caliph al-Mahdī and a sister of Hārūn al-Rashīd and al-Hādī. Nothing is known of ʿAbbāsa's life, as with most other women in medieval Muslim courts, and her fame stems from a story concerning her and Jaʿfar al-Barmakī—a story which purports to explain the murder of Jaʿfar and the overthrow of the Barmakids by Hārūn al-Rashīd. According to this story, which has been reported at length and in great detail by some sources, …