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the basic modern form of the name of two small towns of northern Persia, normally written Āba in medieval Islamic sources. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 1, pp. 29-30 ĀVA, the basic modern form (and the older spoken form) of the name of two small towns of northern Persia, normally written Āba in medieval Islamic sources. The geographers of that time had difficulty in distinguishing the two places, but usually designate them by the names “Aba of Hamadān” (Maqdesī, pp. 25, 51, “Āba of Qazvīn”) and “Aba of Sāva.” 1. Āba (now Āvaj) of Hamadān. This, the mo…

(from Ar. plur. of beʾr “well, spring”), a small settlement of medieval Islamic times on the northern fringe or the Dašt-e Kavīr, modern Bīārjomand. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 2, pp. 196-197 BĪĀR (from Arabic beʾār, plur. of beʾr “well, spring”), a small settlement of medieval Islamic times on the northern fringe or the Dašt-e Kavīr, modern Bīārjomand, described by the medieval geographers as being three days’ journey from Besṭām and as being comprised administratively within the province of Qūmes (…

or BENĀKAṮ, the main town of the medieval Transoxanian province of Šāš or Čāč; it almost certainly had a pre-Islamic history as a center of the Sogdians. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 668-669 BANĀKAṮ, BENĀKAṮ (in Jovaynī, Fanākat), the main town of the medieval Transoxanian province of Šāš or Čāč, to be distinguished from the nearby town of Benkaṯ, another name of the town of Šāš, later Tashkent. Banākaṯ flourished in early Islamic times and almost certainly had a pre-Islamic history as a center of the Sogdians. According to Markwart, Wehrot und A…

military commander in 3rd/9th century Khorasan, one of several contenders for authority in the region after the collapse of Taherid rule had left a power vacuum, d. 268/882. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 650 AḤMAD B. ʿABDALLĀH ḴOJESTĀNĪ, military commander in 3rd/9th century Khorasan, one of several contenders for authority in the region after the collapse of Taherid rule had left a power vacuum, d. 268/882. He was from Ḵoǰestān, a small town of Bādḡīs (the district northeast of Herat, described b…

a minor Iranian Shiʿite dynasty of Māzandarān in the Caspian coastlands that flourished in the late medieval, pre-Safavid period. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 742-743 ĀL-E AFRĀSĪĀB, a minor Iranian Shiʿite dynasty of Māzandarān in the Caspian coastlands that flourished in the late mediaeval, pre-Safavid period; it is also called (e.g. by Rabino) the Kīā dynasty of Čalāb or Čalāv (after the district [ bolūk] of that name in Āmol, Māzandarān). In the tortuous politics and military maneuverings of the petty princes of the Cas…

the Arabic term for “rider on a horse, cavalryman,” connected with the verb farasa/farosa “to be knowledgeable about horses, be a skillful horseman” and the noun faras “horse." A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 245 FĀRES (plurs. forsān, fawāres), the Arabic term for “rider on a horse, cavalryman,” connected with the verb farasa/farosa “to be knowledgeable about horses, be a skillful horseman” and the noun faras “horse.” Since in ancient Arabian society the owner of a horse was a comparatively rich man, often a tribal chief, sayyed, and since in th…

b. Neẓām al-Molk (1043-1106/7), eldest son of the great Saljuq vizier and himself vizier to the Saljuq sultans Barkīāroq (1092-1105) and Moḥammad b. Malekšāh (1105-18). A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 2, pp. 164-165 FAḴR-AL-MOLK b. Neẓām al-Molk, ABU’L-FATḤ MOẒAFFAR (b. 434/1043; d. 500/1106-7), eldest son of the great Saljuq vizier and himself vizier to the Saljuq sultans Barkīāroq (q.v.; 485-98/1092-1105) and Moḥammad b. Malekšāh (498-511/1105-18). He seems to have had no qualifications for office beyond the distinguished name o…

(or ASBĪJĀB, ESBĪJĀB) a town and district of medieval Transoxania. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 749-750 ASFĪJĀB (or ASBĪJĀB, ESBĪJĀB) a town and district of medieval Transoxania, essentially comprising the basin of the Syr Darya’s right-bank affluent, the Ares (Russian Arys’) river. The town of Asfīǰāb lay upstream from Čemkant and corresponds to the 19th-century Sayrām (in the territory of the present Soviet Kazakhstan). The district lay beyond the Iranian heartlands of Tra…

a town and medieval Islamic fortress in eastern Anatolia.A version of this article is available in printVolume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 725-727i. HistoryThe first contact with the Armenian town of Aḵlāṭ was made, according to Balāḏorī ( Fotūḥ, pp. 176, 199), during ʿOmar’s caliphate. In 24/645, during ʿOṯman’s reign, Moʿāwīa, governor of Syria, sent Ḥabīb b. Maslama into Armenia, and the local Armenian princes of the Lake Van region submitted to the Arabs. For the next four centuries, the town was ruled in turn by Arab governors, Armenia…

ancestor of the Samanid dynasty. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 696-697 ASAD B. SĀMĀNḴODĀ, (Sāmānḵodāt in Naršaḵī), ancestor of the Samanid dynasty. Sāmānḵodā seems to have been a local landowner ( dehqān) of the village of Sāmān in the district of Balḵ. Bīrunī gives a genealogy going back four generations from Sāmānḵodā to the Sasanian Bahrām Čūbīn ( Āṯār al-bāqīa, p. 39; Chronology, p. 48); while Gardīzī traces the line back to Gayomarṯ, the first man (ed. Nazim, pp. 19-20; ed. Ḥabībī, p 145). This affiliation of the Sa…

B. EBRĀHĪM, ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR, Ghaznavid sultan in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern India (r. 1117-1157?). A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 5, pp. 526-527 BAHRĀMŠĀH B. MASʿŪD III B. EBRĀHĪM, ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR, Ghaznavid sultan in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern India with the favored honorific title (among many) of Yamīn-al-Dawla wa Amīn-al-Mella, reigned 511-?552/1117-?1157. Bahrāmšāh was one of Masʿūd III’s several sons, though probably not by the latter’s wife Jawhar Ḵātūn, daughte…

(Āḏarbāy[e]jān), historical region of northwestern Iran, east of Lake Urmia, since the Achaemenid era.A version of this article is available in printVolume III, Fascicle 2-3, pp. 205-257 AZERBAIJAN (Āḏarbāy[e]jān), historical region of northwestern Iran, east of Lake Urmia, since the Achaemenid era.The name Azerbaijan was also adopted for Arrān, historically an Iranian region, by anti-Russian separatist forces of the area when, on 26 May 1918, they declared its independence and called it the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. To allay …

literally “taster” (Pers. čāšnī “taste”), the official who at the court of Turkish dynasties in Iran and elsewhere, from the Saljuq period onwards, had the responsibility of tasting the ruler’s food and drink in order to ensure that it was not poisoned. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 1, pp. 47-48 ČĀŠNĪGĪR, literally “taster” (Pers. čāšnī “taste”), the official who at the court of Turkish dynasties in Iran and elsewhere, from the Saljuq period onwards, had the responsibility of tasting the ruler’s food and drink in order to ensure that it was not poisoned. Un…

(r. 1172-1200), ʿAlāʾ-al-Donyā wa’l-Din Abu’l-Moẓaffar, a ruler of the branch of Khwarazmshahs who descended from the Great Saljuq slave commander (ḡolām) Anuštigin Ḡarčāʾi. TEKIŠ B. IL ARSLĀN, ʿAlāʾ-al-Donyā wa’l-Din Abu’l-Moẓaffar (r. 1172-1200; for his full name, see Ebn al-Aṯir XI, p. 377; for the meaning of tekiš Turk. “he who strikes in battle,” see Bayur), a ruler of the branch of Khwarazmshahs who descended from the Great Saljuq slave commander (ḡ olām) Anuštigin Ḡarča’i (r. ca. 1077-97) and ruled in Khwarazm (see CHORASMIA). Tekiš was the eldest son of Il Arslān (r. 1…

(d. 1149-50), son of the well-known Saljuq vizier (d. 485/1092) and himself vizier for the Great Saljuqs and then for the ʿAbbasid caliphs. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 642-643 AḤMAD B. NEẒĀM-AL- MOLK, ABŪ NAṢR (d. 544/1149-50), son of the well-known Saljuq vizier (d. 485/1092) and himself vizier for the Great Saljuqs and then for the ʿAbbasid caliphs. He was born in Balḵ, his mother being a Georgian princess; she was either daughter or niece of King Bagrat I and formerly married (or at leas…

Slaves and slavery. i. In the Achaemenid period. ii. In the Sasanian period. iii. In the Islamic period up to the Mongol invasion. iv. From the Mongols to the abolition of slavery. v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 762 BARDA and BARDADĀRĪ, "slaves and slavery." BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI i. Achaemenid Period At the beginning of the Achaemenid period, the institution of slavery was still poorly developed in Iran. In Media a custom existed whereby a poor man could place himself at the disp…

(or Bavan), a small town in the medieval Islamic province of Bāḏḡīs, to the north and west of Herat. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 3, pp. 306-307 BABAN (or Bavan), a small town in the medieval Islamic province of Bāḏḡīs, to the north and west of Herat, more particularly, in the district of Ganj Rostāq (q.v.), which formed the eastern part of Bāḏḡīs. It must have been within the Herat welāyat of modern Afghanistan, just south of the border with the Turkmenistan S.S.R. and near the modern Afghan town of Košk. The 4th/10th-century geographers link it with …

b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 382 ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪNMARZBĀN, ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (399-440/1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line. He ruled over Fārs and Ḵūzestān 415-40/1024-48, in Kermān fro…

or ANDARĀBA, the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 10 ANDARĀB or ANDARĀBA (Lit.: " between the rivers"), the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan, in what was in mediaeval Islamic times the province of Ṭoḵārestān. The valley lies in 35° 47’ north latitude and 68° 49’ east longitude, and falls within the modern Afghan province (post-1964 administrative reorganization) of Baḡlān. The town …

governor in Khorasan during the confused struggles for supremacy there between the Saffarids, Samanids, and various military adventures in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th century, d. 307/920. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 643-644 AḤMAD B. SAHL B. HĀŠEM, governor in Khorasan during the confused struggles for supremacy there between the Saffarids, Samanids, and various military adventures in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th century, d. 307/920. Aḥmad sprang from an aristocratic family of Persian dehqāns of the Marv oasis, the Kām…