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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. …

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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…

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;  Pauly-Wissowa III/2, cols. 2406-8] or “lowland” [Lerch, p. 447; Veselovskiĭ, p. v; Kiepert, no. 60; MacKenzie,  Camb. Hist. Iran III/2, p. 1244; Bogolyubov, p. 370, has suggested “land with good cattle enclo…

(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. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 26-27…

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…

or Böritigin, name of a Turkish commander in Ḡazna and of the ruler of the western branch of the Qarakhanid dynasty of Transoxania. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 4, pp. 372 BÖRI, or Böritigin (Turkish böri “wolf” plus tigin “prince”; cf. G. Clauson, Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, Oxford, 1972, pp. 356, 483). 1. The name of a Turkish commander in Ḡazna (the name is written in Arabic sources Bīrī, Bīrītekīn, in the Persian ones Pīrī, Pīrītegīn). After the death in battle at Gardīz in 364/974-…

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 beco…

(“The book of the long historical narratives”), title of a historical work by the Persian writer of ʿAbbasi…

a town on the Caspian shore in the southwest of the modern province of Māzandarān, medieval Ṭabarestān.…

a town of Central Asia, in early Islamic times the main settlement of the region known as Yeti-su or Semirechye “the land of the seven rivers,” now mainly within the eastern part of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A version of this article is available in print…

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town situated three miles from the left bank of the Oxus river (Āmū Daryā). A version of this article is available in print…

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…

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 started his career in the army of the Samanid amir Naṣr II b. Aḥmad (301-31/914-43). He is first mentioned as being jailed by the amir in Bokhara for some misdeed; but he was released on the intercession of the vizier, Abu’l-Fażl Moḥammad Balʿamī (317/929). It is possible that he had been involved in the rebellion against Naṣr b. Aḥmad by his three brothers. After his liberation, Moḥammad b. Elyās certainly proclaimed his adherence to the cause of one of these brothers, Yaḥyā, when he subsequently found himself in temporary control of Nīšāpūr. But Naṣr b. Aḥmad’s reassertion of authority in his kingdom in 320/932 drove Moḥammad b. Elyās south into Kermān (Gardīzī, ed. Nazim, pp. 29-30; Narš…

(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, ABU’L-ḤASAN AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD ʿANBARĪ (d. 448/1056), intelligence officer ( ṣāḥeb-barīd) in Khorasan under the early Ghaznavids. He stemmed from a prominent Bayhaq family of scholars and officials, the ʿAnbarīān (q.v.), who had shortly before produced the poet and vizier Abu’l-ʿAbbās ʿAnbarī. Abu’l-Ḥasan was a landowner in Bayhaq, where he built a madrasa; his main claim to fame was that …

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 (Leiden, fol. 539b), we find only the former vocalization. The only biographical data on the author are in his book, apparently his only work. His paternal grandfather Abū Bakr al-Bannāʾ (“the architect, builder”) had built the defenses of Acre (ʿAkkā) for Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn; his maternal grandfather, Abū Ṭayyeb al-Šavā, had migrated from Bīār (modern Bīārǰomand) in Khorasan, on the northern edge of the Great Desert, to Jerusalem (al-Bayt al-Maqdes). Not surprisingly, Maqdesī himself shows an aesthetic, if not technical, interest in buildings and fortifications. He seems to have been born in Palestine at some time between 331/942 and 334/945 and to have died at some point after 381/991. His book was, according to Yāqūt (I, p. 653), put together ca. 375/985; but one passage in the book suggests that it was written towards the end of the reign of the Hamdanid amir of northern…

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 inhabitants; lat 37°29’ N, long 57°17’ E) is situated at the foot of the Ālādāḡ. A version of this article is availabl…