b. Bahāʾ al-Dīn Sulṭān al-ʿulamāʾ Walad b. Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad K̲h̲aṭībī , known by the sobriquet Mawlānā (Mevlânâ), Persian poet and founder of the Mawlawiyya order of dervishes, which was named after him, was born on Rabīʿ I 604/30 September 1207 in Balk̲h̲, and died on 5 D̲j̲umāda II 672/1273 in Ḳonya. The reasons put forward against the above-mentioned date of birth (Abdülbaki Gölpinarli, Mevlânâ Celâleddîn 3, 44; idem, Mevlânâ Şams-i Tabrîzî ile altmiṣ iki yaşinda buluştu , in Şarkiyat Mecmuasi , iii, 153-61; and Bir yazi üzerine , in Tarih Coǧrafya Dünyasi , ii/1…

[see d̲j̲alāl al-dīn rūmī ].

, Persian Ṣūfī and author, who lived and worked in India in the first half of the 8th/14th century. Little is known of his life except that he travelled from k̲h̲ānaḳāh [ q.v.] to k̲h̲anaḳāh , preaching and composing his moralistic treatises for the residents of these convents. He has been incorrectly identified by Blochet as Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Rūmī al-Ḥanafī (Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, iv, 582) and by Massignon as Sulṭān-i Walad’s grandson, Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a. Aḥmad’s most popular work, the Daḳāʾiḳ al-ḥaḳāʾiḳ , is divided in 80 chapters, each opening with an āya or ḥadīt̲h̲ …

, the first post-Alamūt Nizārī Ismāʿīlī imām . Born in the late 640s/1240s, he was the sole surviving son of Rukn al-Dīn K̲h̲urs̲h̲āh [ q.v.], the last lord of Alamūt. The youthful S̲h̲ams al-Dīn was taken into hiding during the final months of the Nizārī state, shortly before ¶ the surrender of Alamūt to the Mongols in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 654/December 1256. He succeeded to the Nizārī imāmate on the death of his father in the late spring of 655/1257. S̲h̲ams al-Dīn reportedly lived his life clandestinely in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān as an embroiderer, whence his ni…

, Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Ak̲h̲ī turk (d. 683/1284), favourite disciple and second k̲h̲alīfa of Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī [ q.v.], was born of a family which had come from Urmiya to settle at Konya (Aflākī, Manāḳib al-ʿārifīn , ii, 759; tr. Huart, ii, 242). Since he became a murīd of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn as a young man and knew S̲h̲ams al-Dīn al-Tabrīzī (d. 642/1244), it may be assumed that he was born in about 623/1226 (cf. op. cit., ii, 738; tr. ii, 223). His father and grandfathers were prominent ak̲h̲īs of Anatolia. Ḥusām al-Dīn lost his father at an early age…

, the de facto ruler of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ state in Anatolia ( Rūm ) during most of the Mongol Protectorate. His father, Muhad̲h̲d̲h̲ab al-Dīn ʿAlī al-Daylamī (d. 642/1244) the vizier of Kayk̲h̲usraw II, interceded with the Mongol general Bayd̲j̲ū after the battle of Köse Dag̲h̲ (641/1243) and secured the survival of the Sald̲j̲ūḳs of Rūm, albeit as Mongol vassals. His son, Muʿīn al-Dīn Sulaymān, is first mentioned in the sources as commander of Tokat. In 654/1256, through the good offices of Bayd̲j̲ū, he was given the titles amīr ḥād̲j̲ib and parwāna (the latter ter…

, Abu ’l-Maʿālī Saʿīd b. Muṭahhar b. Saʿīd b. ʿAlī (586-659/1190-1261), known honorifically as S̲h̲ayk̲h̲-i ʿĀlam and, more familiarly, as K̲h̲wād̲j̲a-yi Fatḥābādī, in reference to the Buk̲h̲āran suburb of Fatḥābād where he established a k̲h̲ānaḳāh , a leading disciple of Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221), eponym of the Kubrawī order [ q.v.]. After elementary education in his birthplace of Bāk̲h̲arz, a town in the Ḳuhistān region of K̲h̲urāsān, Sayf al-Dīn studied jurisprudence and the recitation and exegesis of the Ḳurʾān in Harāt and Nīs̲h̲āpūr before proceeding to K̲h̲wārazm, …

(modern Turkish: Nasreddin Hoca) is the label of the most prominent protagonist of humorous pro se narratives in the whole sphere of Turkish-Islamic influence, ranging from the Balkan area to the Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia. Naṣr al-Dīn is a legendary character whose historical existence none of the various theories regarding his alleged lifetime has succeeded to prove beyond doubt. The character from the 10th/16th century onwards increasingly served as a point of crystallisation for…

, Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. S̲h̲āhāwar Asadī (573-654/1177-1256), Ṣūfī of the Kubrawī order [see kubrā , nad̲j̲m al-dīn ] and author of several important works in Persian and Arabic. He left his native city of Rayy at the age of twenty-six and travelled widely in Syria, Egypt, the Ḥid̲j̲āz, ʿIrāḳ, and Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. He ultimately turned eastwards, passing through Nīs̲h̲āpūr before arriving in K̲h̲wārazm where he became a murīd of Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Kubrā [ q.v.], eponym of the Kubrawiyya. Kubrā assigned his training to a senior disciple, Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn Bag̲h̲dād…

, s̲h̲ams al-dīn aḥmad , biographer of the saints of the Mawlawiyya [ q.v.], was a disciple of Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s grandson, Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn al-ʿĀrif, at whose request he wrote the Manāḳib al-ʿĀrifīn , lives of Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī, his father, successors and associates, begun in 718/1318-9, completed in 754/1353-4. Edition: Agra 1897; Fr. transl. by Cl. Huart, Les saints des derviches toumeurs , Paris 1918-22; Engl, transl. of extracts: The Mesnevi , Book the first, transl. by J. W. Redhouse, London 1881, 1-135. There is a revised version by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Hamadānī…

, (?-1041/1631-2), a commentator of the Mat̲h̲nawī of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī. His date of birth is unknown, but it is known that he was born in Ankara, received a good education, was active in trade and entered the Ḵh̲alwatiyya order of dervishes (cf. S̲h̲arḥ-i Mat̲h̲nawī , i, 11, introduction). Having contracted an eye disease, Ismāʿīl went to Ḳonya where he became a follower of the Mawlawī s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Bostān Čelebī (d. 1040/1630), who named him k̲h̲alīfa . Ismāʿīl then went to Istanbul, where he became s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of the Mawlawī-k̲h̲āne (Mevlevī dervish house) of Galata, a positi…

, abu ’l-nad̲j̲m , favourite slave of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of G̲h̲aznīn. Details of the life of the historical Ayāz are difficult to discover, but he was a Turkomān and, if the tradition utilised by Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī, iv, 887, is accepted, of humble origin also. The Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Bayhaḳī reports Maḥmūd’s successor Masʿūd as describing Ayāz as his father’s ‘sneeze’ and as unsuitable for appointment to the governorship of Ray because of his lack of experience of life outside the court. His death is recorded by Ibn al-At̲h̲īr under 449/1057-8. According to the Čahār Maḳāla , …

, muḥammad b. ḥusayn bahāʾ al-dīn , with the tak̲h̲alluṣ of Bahāʾī, born in 953/1547, died 1030/1621; author of several works in Arabic and Persian, on a variety of subjects. Originating from Ḏj̲abal ʿĀmila in Syria, he migrated to Persia, and eventually obtained an honoured place at the court of S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās. The best-known of his works is the anthology al-Kas̲h̲ḳūl ("the beggar’s bowl"), frequently printed in the East; he also wrote an exposition of S̲h̲īʿite fiḳh (in Persian), under the title of Ḏj̲āmiʿ-i ʿAbbāsī , and was the author of various works on…

, Sayyid Burhān al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn Muḥaḳḳikī , also known as Sayyid Ḥusayn or Sayyid Sirdān, disciple of Bahāʾ al-Dīn Walad and spiritual master of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī [ q.vv.], fl. in the first half of the 7th/13th century. Born at an unknown date and originally from the town of Tirmid̲h̲ [ q.v.] on the Oxus, where he already had a circle of disciples, he became the disciple and then successor of Bahāʾ al-Dīn Walad. He went to ¶ join his master at Ḳonya, but Bahāʾ al-Dīn had died a year previously (628/1231) and his son D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī had succeeded him in teaching …

, Indian Muslim holy man, regarded as the second important figure after Nūr Satgur [ q.v.], whose name is traditionally associated with the commencement of Nizārī [ q.v.] or Satpanth (i.e. the true path) Ismāʿīlism in Sind. Historically he is an obscure ¶ figure surrounded by legends. Most of our information is derived from gināns ascribed to him. The latter, being poetical compositions in Indian vernaculars resembling didactic and mystical poetry, are often anachronistic and legendary in nature. The dates mentioned for his activities, centred in S…

( Kamāl al-Dīn Masʿūd ), Persian lyric poet and mystic, was born in K̲h̲ud̲j̲and (Transoxania), later settled in Tabriz, where he lived the rest of his life and, according to K̲h̲wāndamīr, died in 803/1400-1. Kamāl K̲h̲udiandī’s modest dīwān contains short, exquisite g̲h̲azals of five to seven verses with love, Lebenslust and frustration as central themes, and permeated with a deep pantheistic mysticism reminiscent of the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī and D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī. True to the tradition of the great Persian mystics,…

, Awḥad al-Dīn Ḥāmid b. Abi ’l-Fak̲h̲r (not to be confused with Rukn al-Dīn Awḥadi of Marag̲h̲a in Ad̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān who was also called Awḥad al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī and who died in 738/1337-8) was an eminent Iranian mystic (cf. Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, Taʾrīk̲h̲ -i guzīda , ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn-i Nawāʾī, Tehran 1339/1960, 667-8; Ḏj̲āmī. Nafaḥāt al-uns , ed. Mahdī-yi Tawḥīdī Pīr, Tehran 1331/1962, 588-92). He was a pupil of Rukn al-Dīn al-Sid̲j̲āsī (Sind̲j̲ānī), of the affiliation of Ḳuṭb al-Dīn al-Abharī and Abū Nad̲j̲īb al-Suhrawardī. …

, S̲h̲eyk̲h̲ Meḥmed b. Ramaḍān , Ottoman poet and K̲h̲alwetī s̲h̲eyk̲h̲ . The son of a merchant named Ramaḍān b. Rüstem, he was born in Istanbul in the Ḳod̲j̲a Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a quarter in 1032/1622-3. He became a disciple of ʿAbd al-Aḥad ¶ al-Nūrī. In 1065/1654-5 he became s̲h̲eyk̲h̲ ( pūst-nis̲h̲īn [ q.v.]) in the K̲h̲alwetī monastery of Yawas̲h̲d̲j̲e Meḥmed Ag̲h̲a near S̲h̲ehr Emīni, later (1105/1693) also preacher ( wāʿiẓ ) at the Sulṭān Wālide mosque. He died on 24 S̲h̲awwāl 1112/3 April 1701 and was buried in a special türbe . His son was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Rafī…

, Turkish adherent of the Ṣūfī order of the K̲h̲alwatiyya [ q.v.] and poet in both Persian and Turkish. He was born at an unspecified date at Güzel Ḥiṣār in Aydi̊n, western Anatolia, being connected maternally with the ruling family of the Aydi̊n Og̲h̲ullari̊ [see aydi̊nog̲h̲lu ] and died at Tabrìz in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān in 892/1487. Dede ʿUmar was the k̲h̲alīfa of Sayyid Yaḥyā S̲h̲īrwānī, the pīr-i t̲h̲ānī or second founder of the Ḵh̲alwatī order, and as head of the Rūs̲h̲anī branch of the order engaged in missionary work in northern Ād̲h̲a…

or Arslan Beg b. Balangirī (d. 547 or 548/1153), Turkmen amīr under the Great Sald̲j̲ūḳs of ʿIrāḳ and western Persia. The name K̲h̲āṣṣ Beg seems to have been bestowed on him because of his favoured position under Sulṭān Masʿūd b. Muḥammad (529-47/1134-52); it is used in similar contexts in the works of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī and in the Kitāb Dede Ḳorḳut . During the latter years of Masʿūd’s reign, K̲h̲āṣṣ Beg secured an ascendancy in the state, disposing of such rivals as Tog̲h̲a Yürek’s son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, governor of Arrān (541/1147)…