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title given to various dynastic rulers of Ḵᵛārazm (see CHORASMIA).KHWARAZMSHAH i. AFRIGHIDS See ĀL-E AFRIḠ. KHWARAZMSHAH ii. MAʾMUNIDS See ĀL-E MAʾMUN. KHWARAZMSHAH iii. LINE OF ANUŠTIGIN After the Saljuq takeover in Khwarazm in the early 1040s, the Saljuq Sultans appointed various governors in the province, including Alp Arslān’s (r. 10

Nishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the province of Khorasan. It flourished in Sasanid and early Islamic times, but after the devastations of the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, subsided into a more modest role until it revived in the 20th century. i. Historical Geography and History to the Beginning of the 20th CenturyNishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the provi…

sect of early Islam which arose out of the conflict between ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (r. 656-61) and Moʿāwiya b. Abi Sufyān (r. 661-80). A version of this article is available in print Volume XVI, Fascicle 4, pp. 434-435 KHARIJITES IN PERSIA, adherents of a sect of early Islam that arose out of the conflict between ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (q.v.; r. 35-40/656-61) and Moʿāwiya b. Abi Sofyān (r. 41-60/661-80), the fourth and the fifth caliph respectively, when their opposing armies met at Ṣeffin in …

region on the lower reaches of the Oxus (Amu Darya) in western Central Asia.A version of this article is available in printVolume V, Fascicle 5, pp. 511-520 CHORASMIA (Gk. Chorasmiē < OPers. (H)uwārazmiš, Av. Xᵛāirizəm, later Ḵᵛārazm [Khwārazm], generally derived from * hwāra-zam/zmī-, either “nourishing land” [Burnouf, p. cviii; Sachau, p. 473; Geiger, p. 29;  …

(or Ebn Pūlād), military adventurer, probably of Daylamī origin, active in northern Persia during the Buyid period (early 11th century) and typical of the soldiers of fortune characterizing the “Daylamī intermezzo” of medieval Persian history.…

b. Ebrāhīm KORDĪ, ABŪ SĀLEM, Kurdish commander who ruled sporadically in Azerbaijan between 938 and 955 after the period of Sajid domination there. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 2, pp. 172-173 DAYSAM b. Ebrāhīm KORDĪ, ABŪ SĀLEM, Kurdish commander who ruled sporadically in Azerbaijan between 326/938 and 344/955 after the period of Sajid domination there. Daysam is described as the son of a Kurdish mother and an Arab father who had been a partisan of the Kharijite Hārūn Wāzeqī at Mosul during the caliphate of al-Moʿtaże…

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the name given in medieval Arabic literature to the non-Arabs of the Islamic empire, but applied especially to the Persians. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 700-701 ʿAJAM, the name given in medieval Arabic literature to the non-Arabs of the Islamic empire, but applied especially to the Persians. In origin, the verb ʿaǰama simply means “to speak indistinctly, to mumble;” hence ʿAǰam or ʿOǰm are “the indistinct speakers,” sc. the non-Arabs. The Arabic lexica state at the outset that ʿaǰama is the antonym of ʿaraba “to speak clearly,” so that ʿoǰma becomes the opposite of foṣḥa, “chaste, correct, Arabic language” (cf. Lesān al-ʿarab, Būlāq, 1300-1307, XV, pp. 278ff.; and Tāǰ al-ʿarūs, Cairo, 1889-90, VIII, pp. 389ff.). The term could accordingly be applied to any of the speakers of non-Arabic languages with whom the conquering Arabs came into contact, just as the ancient Greeks had applied the term barbaroi “indistinct, i.e. non-speakers of Greek,” to their less civilized neighbors. In Muslim Spain, the term ʿAǰam was applied to speakers of …

(“The book of the long historical narratives”), title of a historical work by the Persian writer of ʿAbbasid times Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad b. Dāwūd b. Wanand Dīnavarī. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 715-716 AḴBĀR AL- ṬEWĀL, KETĀB AL- (“The book of the long historical narratives”), title of a historical work by the Persian writer of ʿAbbasid times Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad b. Dāwūd b. Wanand Dīnavarī, d. ca. 282/894-95 or, at the latest, by 290/902-3…

a town on the Caspian shore in the southwest of the modern province of Māzandarān, medieval Ṭabarestān. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 980-982 …

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(Ar. Šāš), the name of a district and of a town in medieval Transoxania; the name of the town was gradually supplanted by that of Tashkent from late Saljuq and Mongol times onwards. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 6, pp. 604-605 ČĀČ (Ar. Šāš), the name of a district and of a town in medieval Transoxania; the name of the town was gradually supplanted by that of Tashkent (q.v.) from late Saljuq and Mongol times onwards. The pre-Mongol period. The province of Čāč lay on the right bank of the Syr Darya or Jaxartes, with those of Īlāq to its south …

town situated three miles from the left bank of the Oxus river (Āmū Daryā). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 982-983 ĀMOL (ĀMŪYA), a town situated in 39°5’ north latitude and 63°41 ° east longitude, one farsaḵ or three miles from the left bank of the Oxus river (Āmū Daryā). In medieval Islamic times it fell administratively within the province of Khorasan; today it is Čārǰūy/Čardzou (“Four irrigation canals”), one of the main towns of the Turkmenistan S. S. R. Although surrounded by desert, Āmol marks an important crossing-place o…

scholastic theologian (motakallem) and founder of the theological school of the Ašʿarīya. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 702-703 AŠʿARĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ B. ESMĀʿĪL B. ESḤĀQ, scholastic theologian ( motakallem) and founder of the theological school of the Ašʿarīya or Ašāʿera (ca. 260/874 to 324/936). He was born in Baṣra, a descendant of the famous companion of the Prophet and arbitrator at Ṣeffīn for ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭāleb, Abū Mūsā Ašʿarī, and for the first forty years of his life he was a zealous supporter of the Muʿtazilites (q.v.) and the favored pupil of their leader in Baṣra, Ab…

a short-lived Iranian dynasty which ruled in the eastern Persian province of Kermān during the 4th/10th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 754-756 ĀL-E ELYĀS, a short-lived Iranian dynasty which ruled in the eastern Persian province of Kermān during the 4th/10th century. The founder of the family’s fortunes, Abū ʿAlī Moḥammad b. Elyās, was apparently of Sogdian origin; the family always retained estates in Soḡd. He starte…

(d. 448/1056), intelligence officer in Khorasan under the early Ghaznavids. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 972 AMĪRAK BAYHAQĪ…

An Arabic chronicle on the history of the Great Saljuq dynasty in Iran and Iraq. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 712-713 AḴBĀR AL- DAWLAT AL- SALJŪQĪYA, an Arabic chronicle on the history of the Great Saljuq dynasty in Iran and Iraq, conventionally ascribed to the person mentioned at the head of the work as “al-Amīr al-Sayyed al-Emām al-Aǰall al-Kabīr Ṣadr-al-dīn Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Sayyed al-Aǰall al-Emām al-Šahīd Abu’l-Fawāres Nāṣer b. ʿAlī al-Ḥosaynī;” this same heading names the work itself as the Zobdat al-tawārīḵ aḵbār al-omarāʾ wa’l…

a celebrated geographical work in Arabic written towards the end of the 4th/10th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 679-680 AḤSAN AL- TAQĀSĪM FĪ MAʿREFAT AL-AQĀLĪM, a celebrated geographical work in Arabic written towards the end of the 4th/10th century by Šams-al-dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Moḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Bannāʾ al-Šāmī al-Maqdesī al-Baššārī (thus named in one of the two surviving principal manuscripts of his work). The form al-Maqdesī is preferable to al-Moqaddesī; in Samʿānī’s Ketāb al-ansāb (Leid…

Turkish name associated with personalities before and during the Ghaznavid period. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 254-255 BILGETIGIN (Turkish bilge “wise man, counselor,” an element found in the onomastic of the Orkhon inscriptions, e.g., Bilge Kaḡan, plus tigin “prince”; cf. Clauson, Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, Oxford, 1972, pp. 340, 483), in the sources written Belkātekīn. 1. The name of a Turkish governor in Ḡazna in the years before the assumption of power there by Sebüktigin (q.v.)…

a town and district in Khorasan. i. The town and district. ii. History. The town (1976: 47,719 inhab…