, Persian poet from the reign of S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās I [ q.v.]. Reports on his date of death range from 1016/1607 to 1037/1627-8, but the most probable seems to be 1024-5/1615-16. Little is known about his life. He was born in K̲h̲wānsār to the northwest of Iṣfahān and divided his life between these two towns. Although reputedly quiet and retiring by nature, Zulālī had close contacts with the Ṣafawid court, particularly with Mīr Bāḳir al-Dāmād Astarābādī [ q.v.], his principal patron. Although Zulālī composed g̲h̲azals and ḳaṣīdas , his enduring claim to fame is the collection of seven mat̲h̲nawīs…

, the pen-name of K̲h̲wād̲j̲a Ḥusayn, Indo-Persian poet of the 10th/16th century, d. 996/1587-8. Born in Mas̲h̲had, T̲h̲anāʾī, writing about himself in the introduction to his dīwān , states that, despite having talent, he initially lacked perseverance and that he took up the poetic vocation following a dream which offered him the requisite guidance. He eventually found for himself a generous patron in the person of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm Mīrzā, governor of K̲h̲urāsān, who was a poet in his own right using D…

Sīstānī , Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. D̲j̲ūlūg̲h̲ , the celebrated Iranian poet, a native of the town of Sīstān (cf. Yāḳūt, s.v.; Ḳazwīnī, Nuzhat , s.v.), as he says in a hemistich: “I place (other towns) after Sīstān, because it is my (native) town”. The tak̲h̲alluṣ Farruk̲h̲ī unites the ideas of happiness and physical beauty. His father, Ḏj̲ūlūg̲h̲ (according to ʿAwfī and Dawlats̲h̲āh) or Kūlūg̲h̲ (according to Ad̲h̲ar and Hidāyat) was in the service of the governor of the province of Sīstān. Accordin…

, Persian poet of the Ghaznawid period, was born and raised at Lahore, according to ʿAwfī, the earliest and most trustworthy authority for his life. The nisba Rūnī has been related by Indian writers of the 16th and 17th centuries to a place by the name of Run in the vicinity of Lahore (cf. e.g. Badāʾūnī, Muntak̲h̲ab al-tawārīk̲h̲ , i, Calcutta 1864, 37; Farhang-i Ḏj̲ahāngīrī and Burhān-i ḳāṭiʿ , s.v.). But already Badāʾūnī had to admit that this place could not be found anywhere in that area. Others (e.g. Luṭf-ʿAlī Beg Ād̲h̲ar, Ātas̲h̲kada , lith. Bombay 1299/1882,…

, sayyid d̲j̲alāl , Iranian prose writer and ideologist (1923-69). His œuvre may be tentatively classified as comprising literary fiction on the one hand ( ḳiṣṣa , dāstān ), and essays and reports on the other hand ( maḳāla , guzāris̲h̲ ). This classification, however, only follows the author’s own designation. Āl-i Aḥmad lacks the technical concern and sophistication of a contemporary like Ṣādiḳ Čūbak, and in terms of formal structure, this tends to blur the dividing lines, not merely between the “novel” ( ḳiṣṣa) and the “short story” ( dāstān), but also between the dāstān, often approac…

, “son-in-law”, an honorific title given to mīr muḥammad bāḳir b. s̲h̲ams al-dīn muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-astarābadī , Called also al-Muʿallim al-T̲h̲ālit̲h̲ , the “third teacher” in philosophy ¶ after al-Fārābī. This title properly belongs to his father who was the son-in-law of the famous S̲h̲īʿī theologian ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-ʿĀlī al-Karakī, called al-Muḥaḳḳiḳ al-T̲h̲ānī (Brockelmann, S II, 574), but it was extended to the son, who is more correctly called Dāmādī or Ibn al-Dāmād. Born at Astarābād, Mīr-i Dāmād spent h…

( muḥammad karīm ), ( ca. 1164-93/ca. 1751-79), the founder of the Zand dynasty and the de facto ruler of the greater part of Persia. Having no claim to the title of s̲h̲āh, he instead, assumed, that of wakīl , “regent, lieutenant”. Brought up during exile of the Zand tribe imposed by Nādir S̲h̲āh Afs̲h̲ār, on the latter’s death he succeeded in conducting the Zands from their exile in northern K̲h̲urāsān to the village of Piriya, modern Pari, 30 km. south east of Malāyir, where the clan, originally a lateral branch of the Lakk [ q.v.], had had their settlements prior to their deportation.…

, s̲h̲ihāb al-dīn buk̲h̲ārī , one of the leading Persian poets at the court of the Ilek-K̲h̲āns (Ḳara-K̲h̲ānids) [ q.v.] of Transoxania. Late sources ascribe to him the kunya Abu ’l-Nad̲j̲īb (e.g. Taḳī al-Dīn Kās̲h̲ānī), It is not certain whether ʿAmʿaḳ is a personal name or a laḳab used as a penname. It cannot be connected with any existing Arabic, Persian or Turkish word. D̲h̲. Ṣafā has ¶ suggested a corruption of an original ʿaḳʿaḳ (“magpie”) which occurs as the name of the poet in a manuscript of the Dīwān of Sūzanī. S. Nafīsī conjectured a possible Soghdia…

is the pen name of a Persian poet of the 6th/12th century whose personal name has not been transmitted. Sometimes the title Amīr is added to it, presumably referring to his prominence as a poet of the court in his own days. Another nisba often attached to the name ʿImādī is S̲h̲ahriyārī. The biographical sources interpret the latter differently. According to some, it is derived from the name of a district of Rayy, implying that ʿImādī originated from that area, which is not unlikely. Others, however, have connected it with the founder of the Islamic branch of the Bāwandid dynasty [ q.v.] of Māz…

, Abu ’l- Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-As̲h̲raf, Persian poet who died presumably in 556/1161. He spent the greater part of his life in G̲h̲azna as a panegyrist of the G̲h̲aznawid Sulṭān Bahrām S̲h̲āh (512-47/1118-52), to whose campaigns into India he dedicated several ḳaṣīdas . During the latter’s reign he made the Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , in all probability prompted by problems with this mamdūḥ and intended as a search for a new one. Our oldest source on Ḥasan, the Persian polymath Ẓahīr al-Dīn Abu ’l- Ḥasan al-Bayhaḳī [ q.v.], mentions in his (Arabic) Lubāb al-ansāb (…

, i.e. abū muḥammad ʿabd allāh b. nāṣir al-dīn maḥmūd (or Muḥammad) b. d̲j̲alāl al-dīn mak̲h̲dūm-i d̲j̲ahāniyān , usually known as Ḳuṭb-i ʿĀlam , a famous Suhrawardī saint and the founder of the Buk̲h̲āriyya Sayyids of Gud̲j̲arāt (W. India). He was also known as T̲h̲ānī-i Mak̲h̲dūm-i D̲j̲ahāniyān ( Maʿārid̲j̲). Born at Uchcha (now in Bahāwalpur) on 14 Rad̲j̲ab 790/19 July 1388, he died at Batwa (Ardastānī, Maḥfil al-Aṣfiyā , f. 329b; cf. Ulug̲h̲-k̲h̲ānī , i, 1407), or Bātwa ( Maʿārid̲j̲) a village 6 miles south of Aḥmadābād, on 8 D̲h̲u ʾl-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 857/10 December 1453 ( Maṭlaʿ yawm al-…

, Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn Abu ’l-Ḥasan , a Persian poet of the second half of the 4th/10th century. In some later sources his kunya is given as Abū Isḥāḳ, but the form given above can be found already in an early source like the Čahār makāla . The Dumyat al-ḳaṣr by al-Bāk̲h̲arzī contains a reference to the “solitary ascetic” ( al-mud̲j̲tahid al-muḳīm bi-nafsihi ) Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Kisāʾī of Marw who might very well be identical with this poet (cf. A. Ates, giriş to his edition of Kitāb Tarcumān al-balāġa , 97 f.). The pen name Kisāʾī would, according to ʿAw…

, an Indo-Persian poet of the 11th/17th century, died 1057/1647-8. He originated from the S̲h̲āmlū tribe of the Turks and was a native of Tehran, but details regarding his life are scanty. In Persia he served under Mīrzā ʿAbd Allāh Ḵh̲ān, governor of Lāhīd̲j̲ān [ q.v.] in Gīlān. During this time he married and had a son. Among the eminent personalities to whom he addressed his poems in the beginning were the Ṣafawid rulers S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās I (r. 996-1038/1588-1629) and his successor S̲h̲āh Ṣafī I (r. 1038-52/1629-42). Perhaps his failure to f…

, the pen-name of various minor Persian poets of the 18th-19th centuries. They include: Muḥammad Amīn, b. 1110/1698-9 in Īličpūr (Eličpur) in the western Deccan, d. 1193/1779-80. His ancestors belonged to Iṣfahān, from where his father, Ḥakīm Muḥammad Taḳī K̲h̲ān, migrated to India during the reign of Awrangzīb (1658-1707), and rose to a respectable position under Nawwāb Āṣaf D̲j̲āh (d. 1748), governor of the Deccan in the time of the Mug̲h̲al Emperor Farruk̲h̲siyar (1713-19). Muḥammad A…

, Persian mystical poet of the 8th/14th century, was born at Kirmān about 690/1291-2. In the Ṣafāʾ-nāma he relates that when his father died in 705/1305, he and a brother took over the direction of a Ḵh̲ānaḳāh which had been founded in Kirmān by his father’s s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ , Niẓām al-Dīn Maḥmūd, for the benefit of the followers of the ḳuṭb al-aḳtāb Zayn al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Salām Kamūyī. Through this line of mystical tradition, ʿImād al-Dīn was connected with the teaching of Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī [ q.v.]. Besides his occupation as the s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of a convent, he was also a doctor of Isla…

1. In pre-Islamic South Arabia this term (spelt s 2ʿb in the musnad script) denotes a unit of social organisation for which there has grown up among specialists a convention of using the translation “tribe”; but this can be misleading for non-specialists. ¶ The South Arabian s 2ʿb was antithetic on one hand to the term ʿs 2 r (= Arabic ʿas̲h̲āʾir ) applied by the South Arabian sedentary communities to the nomad bedouin of central Arabia; and on the other hand, within the South Arabian sedentary culture itself, to the “house” ( byt ), a family group based on kinship …

(p.), the Indian style, is the third term of a classification of Persian literature into three stylistic periods. The other terms, sabk-i Ḵh̲urāsānī (initially also called sabk-i Turkistānī ) and sabk-i ʿIrāḳī , refer respectively to the eastern and the western parts of mediaeval Persia. The assumption underlying this geographical terminology is that the shifts of the centre of literary activity from one area to another, which took place repeatedly since the 4th/10th century, were paralleled by a stylisti…

( Abu’ l-Muẓaffar ), born 25 Rad̲j̲ab 892/17 July 1487, died 19 Rad̲j̲ab 930/23 May 1524, shah of Persia (907/1501-930/1524) and founder of the Ṣafawid dynasty [see ṣafawids ]. 1. Biographical and historical: Under Ismāʿīl, Iran became a national state for the first time since the Arab conquest in the 1st/7th century. An important factor in this process was the proclamation by Ismāʿīl of the It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲arī (D̲j̲aʿfarī) form of S̲h̲īʿism as the official religion of the Ṣafawid state. By this action, Ismāʿīl decisively differ…

, the ancient Rag̲h̲ā, a city in the old Persian region of Media, during Islamic times in the province of D̲j̲ibāl [ q.v.]. Its ruins may be seen about 5 miles south-southeast of Tehran [ q.v.] to the south of a spur projecting from Elburz into the plain. The village and sanctuary of S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm lie immediately south of the ruins. The geographical importance of the town lies in the fact that it was situated in the fertile zone which lies between the mountains and the desert, by which from time immemorial communication ha…

, a S̲h̲īʿī offshoot of the Kubrawī Ṣūfī order [ q.v.], which functioned for part of its existence as a distinct sect because of the intermittent claims to the status of mahdī [ q.v.] of its eponym, Sayyid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲. Its importance lies primarily in exemplifying the messianic-tinged Ṣūfī-S̲h̲īʿī ferment that preceded and, in some measure, prepared the way for the establishment of the Ṣafawid state. Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲ was born at Ḳāʾin in Ḳuhistān in 795/1392. His father, supposedly a descendant of the ¶ Imām Mūsā al-Kāẓim, ha…