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(d. 1100), Turkish eunuch slave commander of the Great Saljuqs. A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 2, pp. 180 GOWHAR-ĀʾĪN, Saʿd-al-dawla, Turkish eunuch slave commander of the Great Saljuqs (d. 493/1100). In his early life he had been a slave ( mamluk) of the Buyid ruler of Iraq, Abu Kālijār b. Solṭān-al-Dawla, but passed into the service of the Saljuqs (Ebn al-Jawzi, Montaẓam IX, p. 115; Ebn al-Aṯir, Beirut, X, p. 295; Ṣadr-al-Din Ḥosayni, p. 51). In 464/1071-72, Sultan Alp Arslān (q.v.) appointed him the Saljuq military governor ( šeḥna) in Baghdad, an o…

a small town in the Qazvīn district. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 213-214 ABHAR (or Awhar in local pronunciation, see Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, pp. 132, 383), a small town in the Qazvīn district, on the highway connecting Ray and later Tehran with Tabrīz and Azerbaijan. The geographers state that it lay 12 farsaḵs west of Qazvīn and that Zanǰān (the town with which it is often coupled in the geographical and historical sources) was 20 farsaḵs farther (thus Ebn Ḥawqal, tr. Kramers, p. 351; but Ebn Rosta, tr. Wiet, p. 196, makes this last journey 15 far…

son of a Turkish slave commander of Maḥmud of Ghazna who served as governor in Kᵛārazm 1032-35, first for the Ghaznavids, and then as an independent ruler. A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 1, pp. 17 HĀRUN B. ALTUNTAŠ, son of a Turkish slave commander of Maḥmud of Ghazna (q.v.) who served as governor in Kᵛārazm from 423/1032 until 426/1035 (see CHORASMIA ii.), first of all for the Ghaznavids, and then as an independent ruler. Hārun succeeded his father Altuntaš as de facto governor of Ḵᵛārazm on his death in Jomādā I 423/April-May 1032 (for the ev…

b. Żaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd, Persian historian of the early 5th/11th century. He was clearly connected with the Ghaznavid court and administration and close to the sultans. A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 3, pp. 314-315 GARDĪZĪ, ABŪ SAʿĪD ʿABD-al-ḤAYY b. Żaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd, Persian historian of the early 5th/11th century whose exact dates of birth and death are unknown. His life is almost wholly obscure, although his nesba implies a connection with Gardīz (q.v.) in eastern Afghanistan, and the name Zahāk/Żaḥḥāk seems to have been a popular on…

ABŪ NAṢR ŠARAF-AL-DĪN, high official who served the Great Saljuq sultans and the ʿAbbasid caliph during the first half of the 6th/12th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 2, pp. 139 ANŪŠERVĀN B. ḴĀLED B. MOḤAMMAD KĀŠĀNĪ, ABŪ NAṢR ŠARAF-AL-DĪN, high official who served the Great Saljuq sultans and the ʿAbbasid caliph during the first half of the 6th/12th century. He was born at Ray in 459/1066-67; the date of his death at Baghdad is variously given as 532/1137-38 and 533/1138-39. After secretarial training, he rose to prominence in the servic…

Samanid amir in Transoxania and Khorasan (295-301/907-14). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 349-350 ABŪ NAṢR AḤMAD B. ESMĀʿĪL SĀMĀNĪ, called AMĪR-E ŠAHĪD (“the martyred amir”) because of his violent death, Samanid amir in Transoxania and Khorasan (295-301/907-14). Under his father, Esmāʿīl b. Aḥmad (the real founder of Samanid fortunes), he had been for a time governor of the recently conquered province of Gorgān (see below). Succeeding as amir, he became ruler of a considerable…

Arabic philologist and grammarian (probably 110-209/728-824, but the sources have other, slightly different dates). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 355-356 ABŪ ʿOBAYDA MAʿMAR B. AL-MOṮANNĀ, Arabic philologist and grammarian (probably 110-209/728-824, but the sources have other, slightly different dates). His father and grandfather came from Bāǰarvān, but he himself was born in Baṣra, a mawlā of the clan of Taym of Qorayš. The assertion that his family was of Jewish origin is probably a calumny of his enemies; more p…

Vizier to the atabeg of Lorestān Šams-al-dawla Ḡāzī Beg Aydoḡmuš (7th/13th century). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 357 ABU’L- QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ABĪ ḤANĪFA, vizier to the atabeg of Lorestān Šams-al-dawla Ḡāzī Beg Aydoḡmuš. It was for this vizier that Abu’l-Šaraf Nāṣeḥ b. Ẓafar b. Saʿd Jorbādqānī, in the early years of the 7th/13th century, made his simplified Persian version of Abu’l-Naṣr ʿOtbī’s ornate Arabic history of Sebüktigin and Maḥmūd of Ḡazna, al-Taʾrīḵ al-yamīnī (See: ʿOtbī). C. Edmund Bosworth Bibliography Nafīsī, Naẓ…

member of the Deylamī dynasty of the Kakuyids (d. 1095). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 848-849 ʿALĪ B. FARĀMARZ, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA or MOʾAYYED-AL-DAWLA ʿAŻOD-AL-DĪN B. ABĪ MANṢŪR FARĀMARZ B. ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA MOḤAMMAD B. DOŠMANZĪĀR, member of the Deylamī dynasty of the Kakuyids, d. 488/1095. In the middle years of the 5th/11th century, under ʿAlī’s father, Abū Manṣūr Farāmarz, the Kakuyids of Jebāl had lost their former capital of Isfahan to the Saljuq leader Ṭoḡrïl Beg. They had been…

vizier of the Samanids in the last years of their power. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 255 ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD B. ʿĪSĀ DĀMḠĀNĪ, vizier of the Samanids in the last years of their power. The reign of Amīr Nūḥ II b. Manṣūr (365-87/976-97) was rent by internal strife among the great military leaders of the state, with the viziers tending to become the creatures of one or other opposing faction in the state. Dāmḡānī’s predecessor ʿAbdallāh b. Moḥammad b. ʿOzayr (ʿAzīz?) had been the protég…

[I], BAHĀʾ-AL-DAWLA ABU’L-ḤASAN, Ghaznavid sultan, reigned briefly ca. 1048-49. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 852-853 ʿALĪ B. MASʿŪD I, BAHĀʾ-AL-DAWLA ABU’L-ḤASAN, Ghaznavid sultan, reigned ca. 440/1048-49. Masʿūd II b. Mawdūd and then ʿAlī b. Masʿūd I were the two ephemeral successors of Sultan Mawdūd b. Masʿūd I (r. 432-41/1041-50). Little is known about their reigns; many later sources do not even mention their existence. Our main knowledge of ʿAlī’s brief reign derives from Ebn Bābā Qāšānī’s 6th/12th century adab work, the Ketāb raʾs mā…

a town of central Persia on the present Yazd-Ardestān-Kāšān road along the southern edge of the Dašt-e Kavīr, forty miles northwest of Yazd. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 370-371 ARDAKĀN-e YAZD, a town of central Persia on the present Yazd-Ardestān-Kāšān road along the southern edge of the Dašt-e Kavīr, forty miles northwest of Yazd, in 32° 18’ north latitude and 53° 50’ east longitude, and an elevation of 3,280 feet above sea level. It is possible that Ardakān is the Artacana of Ptolemy ( Geography 6.5.4), described as a town of Parthia in t…

a medieval Islamic town on the right bank of the lower Jaxartes in Central Asia some 350 km from where the river enters the Aral Sea. A version of this article is available in print Volume XIV, Fascicle 5, pp. 533 JAND, a medieval Islamic town on the right bank of the lower Jaxartes in Central Asia some 350 km from where the river enters the Aral Sea; hence the Aral often appears in geographical works as the “Sea of Jand.” The town is first mentioned by the geographers of the 10th century as an Oghuz (Ḡozz, q.v.) Turkish settlement. Nothing is known of its prior history. Sov…

(472-546/1079-1151), local historian of Herat in the Saljuq period. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 350 ABŪ NAṢR FĀMĪ, ṮEQAT-AL-DĪN ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN B. ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR B. ʿOṮMĀN, 472-546/1079-1151, local historian of Herat in the Saljuq period. The scanty biographical information we possess derives only from Samʿānī [Leiden], fol. 418b) and from Ebn al-ʿEmād ( Šaḏarāt al-ḏahab, Cairo, 1350-51/1931-33, IV, p. 140). These authors describe him as pious and modest, a ḥāfeẓ, traditionist, and copyist of sacred texts, from whom many scho…

(or ʿAlī b. ʿOṯmān b. Ḥarb), ephemeral Saffarid amir of the so-called “third Saffarid dynasty”. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 849 ʿALĪ B. ḤARB (or ʿAlī b. ʿOṯmān b. Ḥarb), ephemeral Saffarid amir of the so-called “third Saffarid dynasty” (described in the sources as the “ molūk of Nīmrūz”); reigned briefly and died in 622/1225. In the early 7th/13th century, Sīstān, along with all the eastern Islamic lands, seems to have fallen into disorder with the irruption of the Mongols in 614/1217 and after. An addit…

B. MANŪČEHR B. QĀBŪS, ruler of the Daylamī dynasty of the Ziyarids in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān during the early 11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 2, pp. 139-140 ANŪŠERVĀN B. MANŪČEHR B. QĀBŪS, ruler of the Daylamī dynasty of the Ziyarids in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān during the early 5th/11th century. He was the grandson of the celebrated amir and prose stylist, Šams-al-Maʿālī Qābūs b. Vošmgīr, and his father, Manūčehr, was the son-in-law of Maḥmūd of Ḡazna. Toward the end of Manūčehr’s reig…

vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 370 ABŪ SAHL ḴOJANDĪ, vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. He served Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (451-92/1059-99) as that ruler’s second vizier, succeeding Abū Bakr b. Abī Ṣāleḥ, probably in the early part of the reign. All that is known of his background is that he had been secretary in the Ghaznavid dīvāns since the time of Sultan Masʿūd. At some unspecified date he fell from favor and was arrested and blinded at the sultan’s orders. C. Edmund Bosworth Bibliograp…

first vizier for the Ghaznavid sultan Maḥmūd (r. 388-421/998-1030). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 303-304 ABU’L- ḤASAN ʿALĪ B. FAŻL B. AḤMAD ESFARĀʾĪNĪ, first vizier for the Ghaznavid sultan Maḥmūd (r. 388-421/998-1030). He began his career as a secretary in Khorasan in the entourage of the ambitious Turkish general of the Samanids, ʿAmīd-al-dawla Fāʾeq Ḵāṣṣa, and was probably a native of the town of Esfarāʾīn in northwest Khorasan. When the bid for control of Khorasan by Fāʾeq and …

Ghurid malek and later sultan, reigned in Ḡūr from Fīrūzkūh as the last of his family there before the extinction of the dynasty by the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, 599-602/1203-96 and 611-12/1214-15. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 777 ʿALĀʾ-AL- DĪN (or ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN) ʿALĪ B. ŠOJĀʿ-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ, Ghurid malek and later sultan, reigned in Ḡūr from Fīrūzkūh as the last of his family there before the extinction of the dynasty by the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, 599-602/1203-96 and 611-12/1214-15. As Malek Żīāʾ-al-dīn, and also bearing the titl…

ABU’L-ḤASAN, second Ḵᵛārazmšāh of the short-lived Maʾmunid dynasty in Ḵᵛārazm (r. 997-ca. 1008-09). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 852 ʿALĪ B. MAʾMŪN, ABU’L-ḤASAN, second Ḵᵛārazmšāh of the short-lived Maʾmunid dynasty in Ḵᵛārazm (reigned 387-ca. 399/997-ca. 1008-9). He was married to Maḥmūd of Ḡazna’s sister Kah-Kālǰī (ʿOtbī, al-Taʾrīḵ al-Yamīnī, with commentary of Shaikh Manīnī, Cairo, 1286/1869, II, p. 151), and the latter was, after his death, taken over by his brother and successor Abu’l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn in…