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b. hās̲h̲im , of the aristocratic dihḳān family Kāmkāriyān (who had settled near Marw), which boasted of Sāsānian descent, governor of Ḵh̲urāsān. In order to avenge the death of his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and Arabs (in Marw), he had under ʿAmr b. al-Layt̲h̲ stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken prisoner and brought to Sīstān, whence he escaped by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new attempt at a rising in Marw he fled for refuge to th…

, Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Ḥayy b. al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd , Persian historian who flourished in the middle of the 5th/11th century. Nothing is known of his life. His nisba shows that he came from Gardīz [ q.v.]; since he says that he received information about Indian festivals from al-Bīrūnī [ q.v.], he may have been his pupil. His work, entitled Zayn al-ak̲h̲bār, was written in the reign of the G̲h̲aznawid Sultan ʿAbd al-Ras̲h̲īd (440/1049-443/1052). It contains a history of the pre-Islamic kings of Persia, of Muḥammad and the Caliphs to the year 423/1032, and a d…

, a town on the north bank of the Oxus river [see āmū daryā ] near the mouth of its tributary, the Surk̲h̲ān river (lat. 37° 15’ N., long. 67° 15’ E.), now the town of Termez in the southernmost part of the Uzbekistan Republic. As Samʿānī, who spent 12 days there, testifies, the name was pronounced Tarmīd̲h̲ in the town itself ( K. al-Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābad, iii, 41) which is confirmed by the Chinese Ta-mi (e.g. Hüan Tsang, tr. St. Julien, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, i, 25). Russian officers in 1889 also heard the pronunciation Termiz or Tarmi̊z ( Sbornik materialov po Azii …

al-ḥād̲j̲ib , abū saʿīd (his alleged second name Hārūn which occurs in a single passage of Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, ix, 294, is probably due to an error of the author or of a copyist), Turkish slave, later general of the G̲h̲aznawid Sebuk Tegīn and his two successors and governor of Ḵh̲wārizm. Already under Sebuk Tegīn he attained the highest rank in the bodyguard, that of a "great ḥād̲j̲ib "; under Maḥmūd he commanded the right wing in the great battle against the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids (22 Rabīʿ II 398/4 Jan. 1008, and in 401/1010-1 he is mentioned as governor of Harāt. After the conquest of k̲h̲wārizm in 408/1…

, a Persian historian, wrote in 1233/1818 a short summary of the geographical relations of Central Asiatic countries (Afg̲h̲ānistān, Buk̲h̲ārā, Ḵh̲īwā, Ḵh̲oḳand, Tibet and Kas̲h̲mīr), and of historical events in those countries from 1160 (accession of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Durrānī) down to his own times. ʿAbd al-Karīm had already left his native country in 1222/1807-8 and accompanied an embassy to Constantinople; he remained there till his death, which took place after 1246/1830, and wrote his book for t…

, the name of two amīr s of the Sāmānid dynasty of Tranoxania and K̲h̲urāsān. 1. Manṣūr b. Nūḥ I, Abū Ṣaliḥ, ruler of K̲h̲urāsān and Transoxania (350-65/961-76), succeeded his brother ʿAbd al-Malik b. Nūḥ I. Ibn Ḥawḳal is able ¶ to describe the internal conditions of the Sāmānid kingdom under Manṣūr as an eye-witness; cf. especially BGA, ii, 341: fī waḳtinā hād̲h̲ā ; 344 on the character of Manṣūr “the justest king among our contemporaries, in spite of his physical weakness and the slightness of his frame”. On the vizier Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad Balʿamī, see balʿamī , where a…

(his real name was Muḥammad Ḥaydar; as he himself says, he was known as Mīrzā Ḥaydar; Bābur calls him Ḥaydar Mīrzā), a Persian historian, author of the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , born in 905/1499-1500, died in 958/1551 (for his descent see dūg̲h̲lāt ); through his mother he was a grandson of the Čag̲h̲atāy K̲h̲ān Yūnus and a cousin of Bābur. Most of our knowledge of his life is gleaned from his own work; Bābur (ed. Beveridge, p. 11) devotes a few lines to him; the Indian historians Abu ’l-Faḍl and Firis̲h̲ta give some information about his later years. After the assassination of his father (91…

, Turko-Mongol word for “town” = or “castle” (also written bāliḳ and bālig̲h̲ ); appears frequently in compound names of towns, such as Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ (“Five Towns”, at the present day in ruins at Gučen in Chinese Turkestan), Ḵh̲ānbāliḳ (the “Ḵh̲ān’s Town”), Turko-Mongol name for Pekin (also frequently used by European travellers in the middle ages in forms like (Cambalu), Ilibāliḳ (on the River Ili, the modern Iliysk) etc. As the town of Bās̲h̲bāliḳ is mentioned as early as the Ork̲h̲on i…

, ruler of the Özbegs [see uzbeks ] and founder of the power of this nation, descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son [see s̲h̲aybānids ], born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the hid̲j̲ra 816/1413-4 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter met his death in a revolt; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲ayr was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siber…

, according to Radloff ( Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk-Dialecte , St. Petersburg 1899, ii, 924) “a Turkish tribe in Turkistan”; the same authority gives the Kirgiz (i.e. Ḳazaḳ) word ḳurama (from ḳura , “to sew together pieces of cloth”) with the meaning “a blanket made of pieces of cloth sewn together”. In another passage ( Aus Sibirien 2, Leipzig 1893, i, 225) Radloff himself says that the Kurama are “a mixed people of Özbegs and Kirgiz” and their name comes from the fact, asserted by the Kirgiz, that “they are made up of patches from many tribes” ( kura to “patch…

, a S̲h̲aybānid [ q.v.], the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940/1533-4 (the dragon year 1532-3 is given, probably more accurately, as the year of the cycle) at Āfarīnkent in Miyānkāl (an island between the two arms of the Zarafs̲h̲ān). The father (Iskandar Ḵh̲ān), grandfather (Ḏj̲ānī Beg) and great-grandfather (Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad, son of Abu ‘l-Ḵh̲ayr [ q.v.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935/1528-9) had at the distribution of 918/1512-3 received Karmīna and Miyānkāl; Iskandar …

, the name of another prince, of the Aḳ-Ḳoyunlū dynasty in Persia, son and successor of Sulṭān Yaʿḳūb; he only reigned for a short period from 896-7/1490-2 and was overthrown by his cousin Rustam. (W. Barthold)

, second son of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Samarḳand, grandson of Sulṭān Abū Saʿīd [ q.v.], born in the year 882/1477-8, killed on 10 Muḥarram 905/17 Aug. 1493. In the lifetime of his father he was prince of Buk̲h̲ārā; on the death of the latter in Rabīʿ II 900/30 Dec. 1494/27 Jan. 1495, he was summoned to Samarḳand. In 901/1495-6, he was deposed for a brief period by his brother Sulṭān ʿAlī and in 903, towards the end of Rabīʿ I November 1497, finally overthrown by his cousin Bābur. Bāysong̲h̲or then betook himself to…

, or alta s̲h̲ahr (the word "six" is always written alta in Chinese Turkistān), "six towns", a name for part of Chinese Turkistān (Sin-kiang) comprising the towns of Kuča, Aḳ Su, Uč Turfān (or Us̲h̲ Turfān), Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar, Yārkand and Ḵh̲otan. It appears to have been first used in the 18th century (cf. M. Hartmann, Der Islamische Orient , i, 226, 278). Yangi Ḥiṣār, between Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar and Yārkand, is sometimes added as the seventh town (though it also frequently counted as one of the six, in which case either Kuča or Uč Turfān is…

, district in Soviet Türkmenistān on the northern slope of the frontier-mountains of Ḵh̲urāsān (Kopet Dag̲h̲), between the modern railway ¶ stations Gjaurs and Dus̲h̲ak. The name is really Turkish, Etek, "edge border" (of the mountain-chain), and is a translation of the Persian name given to this district, viz. Dāman-i Kūh, "foot of the mountain"; but the word is always written Ātak by the Persians. During the Middle Ages no special name for Atek appears to have been in use; being a district of the town of Abīward [ q.v.] it belonged to Ḵh̲urāsān. In the 10th/16th and 11th/17th cent…

, a Tatar K̲h̲ān of Siberia, in whose reign this country was conquered by the Russians. Abu ’l G̲h̲āzī (ed. Desmaisons, 177), is the only authority to give information regarding his origin and his genealogical relation to the other descendants of Čingiz K̲h̲ān. According to this source, he reigned for forty years in “Tūrān”, lost his eyesight towards the end of his life, was driven from his kingdom by the Russians in 1003/1594-5, took refuge with the Mang̲h̲i̊t (Nogay) and died among them. Refer…

(usually written K̲h̲ān Bālīḳ), the “K̲h̲ān’s town”, the name of Pekin, the capital of the Mongol Emperors after 1264 in Eastern Turkī and Mongol and afterwards adopted by the rest of the Muslim world and even by Western Europe ( Cambaluc and variants in S. Hallberg, l’Extrême Orient dans la littérature et la cartographie de l’Occident, Göteborg 1906, 105 f.). According to Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn (ed. Berezin, Trudi̊ Vost . Otd . Ark̲h̲ . Obs̲h̲č . xv, Persian text, 34), Pekin (Chinese, then Čūngdū, i.e. “the middle capital”) was called K̲h̲ānbāli̊ḳ even…

“White Mosque”, name of two towns: 1. Town in the Crimea (local pronunciation: Aḳ Mečet), founded in the 16th. century by the k̲h̲āns of the Crimea in order to protect their capital, Bāg̲h̲če Sarāy, from nomad incursions. It was the residence of the crown prince ( kalg̲h̲ay sulṭān ), whose palace was outside the town, according to Ewliyā Čelebi, vii, 638-41. The town was destroyed by the Russians in 1736, and rebuilt in 1784 under the name of Simferopol (although the local population continued to use the Turkish name). 2. A fortress on the Si̊r Daryā, which belonged to the Ḵh̲ānate …

, a prince of the house of Tīmūr, grandson of its founder. He was 12 years old at the death of his grandfather (S̲h̲aʿbān 807/February 1405) so he must have been born about 795/1392-3. His father ʿUmar S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ had predeceased Tīmūr. Bāyḳarā is celebrated by Dawlat-S̲h̲āh (ed. Browne, 374) for his beauty as a second Joseph and for his courage as a second Rustam; he was prince of Balk̲h̲ for a long period. In the year 817/1414 he was granted Luristān, Hamadān, Nihāwand and Burūd̲j̲īrd by S̲h̲āh…

, Persian general, brother and successor of Yaʿḳūb b. al-Layt̲h̲ [ q.v.[, the founder of the Ṣaffārid [ q.v.] dynasty in Sid̲j̲istān. Said to have been a mule-driver in his youth, and later on a mason, he was associated with his brother’s campaigns and in 259/873 captured for Yaʿḳūb the Ṭāhirid capital Naysābūr. After Yaʿḳūb’s defeat at Dayr al-ʿĀkūl and subsequent death (S̲h̲awwāl 265/ June 879), ʿAmr was elected by the army as his successor. He made his submission to the caliph, and was invested with the provin…

, ancient Armenian capital, whose ruins lie on the right bank of the Arpa-Čay (called by the Armenians Ak̲h̲uryan) at about 20 miles from the point where that river joins the Araxes. A suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Iranian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaďtis). The site was inhabited in the pre-Christian period, for pagan tombs have been found in the immediate vicinity of the town. As a fortress Ānī is mentioned as early as the 5th century A.D. Its foun…

The word ḳazaḳ in the Turkic language can be first documented in the 8th/14th century in ¶ the meaning “independent; vagabond”. These and similar meanings, such as “free and independent man, vagabond, adventurer, etc.” are known in the modern Turkic languages too. During the turmoils under the Tīmūrids, the word signified the pretenders in contrast to the actual rulers, and also their supporters, who led the life of an adventurer or a robber at the head of their men. At the same time, the word began also to be …

, steppe of Western Siberia, situated in the oblast ’ of Novosibirsk of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic, between lat. 54° and 57° North, and bounded on the East and West by the ranges of hills which skirt the banks of the Irti̊s̲h̲ and the Ob’. This steppe, which extends for 117,000 sq. km., has numerous lakes, most of which are sait; the biggest is Lake Čani̊. The ground, which is partly marshland, also has some fertile zones, but it is essentially a cattle-rearing region. It has a cold continental climate. The population (over 500,000 inhabitants in 1949) is unequally d…

, the modern s̲h̲ahr-i sabz (“green town”) on account of the fertility of its surroundings), a town in Özbekistān on what was once the great trade route between Samarḳand and Balk̲h̲. According to Chinese authorities, Kas̲h̲ (Chinese transcription Kʾia-s̲h̲a or Kié-s̲h̲uang-na, also Kʾius̲h̲a, as a town Ki-s̲h̲e) was founded at the beginning of the seventh century A.D.; cf. J. Marquart, Chronologie der alttürkischen Inschriften , Leipzig 1898, 57; Ērānšahr etc., Berlin 1901, 304; E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Toukiue ( Turcs ) occidentaux , St. Petersbu…

, after the Aral [ q.v.], the largest inland lake of Central Asia (18,432 sq. km.), into which the Ili and several other less important rivers flow. The lake’s existence was unknown to the Arab geographers of the Middle Ages. The anonymous author of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (372/982-983; comp. J. Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge , xxx, makes the Ili (Īlā) flow into the Issi̊ḳ-Ḳul. Of all the Muslim authors, Muḥammad Ḥaydar is the only one, to our knowledge, who, towards the middle of the 10th/16th century ( Taʾrik̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , trans. by E. D. …

, a district on both sides of the middle course of the Wak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Surk̲h̲āb (Turk. Ḳi̊zi̊l Ṣū), one of the rivers which form the Āmū Daryā, called Rās̲h̲t by the Arab geographers (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih 34, 211 f.; Ibn Rusta, 92 f., 290; Yaʿḳūbī, Buldān , 260). The principal place (or “the fortress”, al-Ḳalʿa , al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, 340) of Rās̲h̲t corresponded as regards its situation perfectly with the modern Garm or Harm, the only town in Ḳaratigin. Rās̲h̲t then formed one of the frontier lands of Islām and was ¶ defended on the east against the inroads of the Turks by a wall built by Faḍl b. Barmak [ q…

, (T., "holy father") is the old name of the city called since 1938 Ḏj̲ambul after the Ḳazak̲h̲ poet Džambul Džabaev (1846-1945), which lies on the left bank of the Ṭalās in the Ḳazak̲h̲ SSR. Until 1917 it was the capital of the district of the Si̊r Daryā in Russian Turkistān and obtained its name from the grave of the holy man Ḳara Ḵh̲ān (which is mentioned as early as the 17th century; see Maḥmūd b. Walī, Baḥr al-Asrār , MS India Office 545, fol. 1191). His mausoleum dates from the 19th century and bears no inscription. On the other hand the grave of the "little holy one" ( Kičik Awliyā …

, two mountain ranges east of the Caspian Sea, which enclose the dried-out river-bed of the Özboi (cf. Āmū Daryā). To the north of this river lies the Great Balk̲h̲ān, a high plateau of limestone, difficult of access, with steep slopes; the highest elevation is at the Düines̲h̲ Ḳalʿe, about 1880 metres. The Little Balk̲h̲ān, south of the Özboi and cut with numerous ravines, attains (in the west) a height of no more than 800 metres. These mountains, where according to Muḳaddasī, 285, l. 14 ff., w…

, Ḳazān , a town on the middle Volga, now the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan in the USSR, and in the 15th and 16th centuries capital of the K̲h̲ānate of the same name. According to legendary accounts, the town was founded by Batu K̲h̲ān in a Turkish and Muslim region which had been part of the ancient kingdom of Bulg̲h̲ār [ q.v.] before the Mongol invasions. The K̲h̲ānate of Ḳāzān was founded in the first half of the 15th century by a Čingizid descendant, Ulu Muḥammad, son of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn and grandson of Toḳtami̊s̲h̲, at the time when the Gold…

, a Turkish people, mentioned as early as the oldest Chinese accounts of Central Asia (from the 2nd century A.D.) under the name Kien-Kuen, which according to P. Pelliot ( JA, Ser. 2, vol. xv, 137) goes back to a Mongol word, singular ḳirḳun . The lands of the Kirgiz are not exactly defined in these sources; according to a very reliable source, the land of the Kien-Kuen lay north-west of the land of the K’ang-Kiu, i.e. of Sogdiana. The name Ḳi̊rg̲h̲i̊z first appears in the Ork̲h̲on inscriptions of the 8th century; at…

, an Özbek chief of the family of the Keneges, who was till 1870 prince of S̲h̲ahrisabz. This town having been conquered by the Russians, he fled with a small body of those faithful to him. Finally he was seized in Ferg̲h̲ānā and obliged to reside at Tas̲h̲kent. In 1875 he entered Russian military service and took part in the campaign against Ḵh̲oḳand. He died about 1898 at Tas̲h̲kent. (W. Barthold [B. Spuler])

“land of the mountains”; this name is an unusual linguistic phenomenon, since it consists of the Turkish word dāg̲h̲ , mountain, and of the suffix which, in the Persian language, distinguishes the names of countries; this name seems to have appeared for the first time in the 10th/16th century). An autonomous Republic of the R.S.F.S.R. with an area of 19,500 sq. miles and a population of 958,000 inhabitants (1956), it is made up of two quite distinct parts: the Caucasian Range and the cis-Casp…

, a town in Chinese Turkestān (Sin Kiang); the same name is still used in Chinese official documents. The name Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar first appears in Chinese transcription (Kʾiu-cha) in the Tʾang-s̲h̲u ; cf. E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue ( Turcs ) occidentaux , St. Petersburg 1903, 121 f. On the pre-Islamic Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar and the ruins of Buddhist buildings in the vicinity, see A. Stein, Ancient Khotan , Oxford 1907, i, 52 f.; idem, Serindia , Oxford 1921, 80 f. Arab armies did not reach Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar; the story of Ḳutayba’s campaign in 96/715 is, as shown by H. A. R. Gibb in BSOS, ii (1923), 46…

(in Arabic usually taken as al-lān ), an Iranian people (Alān < Aryan) of Northern Caucasus, formerly attested also east of the Caspian sea (see al-Bīrūnī, Taḥdīd al-Amākin , ed. A. Z. Validi, in Bīrūnī’s Picture of the world, 57), as supported by local toponymy. The Alān are mentioned in history from the 1st century A.D. In 371 they were defeated by the Huns. Together with the Vandals, a part of the Alāns migrated to the West across France and Spain, and finally took part in the creation of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa (418-5…

, Persian historian, author of the well-known Maṭlaʿ-i Saʿdayn wa-Mad̲j̲maʿ-i Baḥrayn , born in Harāt S̲h̲aʿbān 816/Nov. 1413, died there Ḏj̲umādā II 887/July-August 1482. His father was imām and ḳāḍī of the camp ( ḥaḍrat ) of S̲h̲āhruk̲h̲ and read out books and expounded various problems ( masāʾil ) to him ( Maṭlaʿ , ii, 704, 870, cf. 706). He received the usual type of education, and one of his teachers was his elder brother ʿAbd al-Ḳahhār. He also attended when his father read the two Ṣaḥīḥs to S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥ. al-Ḏj̲azarī (d. 833/1429) (ibid., ii, 631-1294) and received an id̲j̲āza …

Ḥusaynī rāzī , Persian historian, b. ca. 993/1585, date of death unknown; author of a large history of the world, which in the manuscripts is sometimes called “Mad̲j̲maʿ” and sometimes “Zubdat al-tawārīk̲h̲” , and is generally known as “Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḥaydarī” . The work is arranged according to geographical divisions in five bāb s: 1. the Arab world; 2. Persia; 3. Central Asia and the Far East; 4. the West; 5. India, each of which is arranged chronologically. They deal with political history and frequently reach into the time …

, also known as fūs̲h̲and̲j̲ , in Middle Persian probably Pūs̲h̲ang, ancient Iranian town to the south of the river Harīrūd, and 10 parasangs (= one day’s journey) W-S-W. of Harāt (Yāḳūt, i, 758) which lies north of the river. The town already existed in pre-Islamic times, and, according to legend, was founded either (considering its name) by the hero Pas̲h̲ang (the son, though in the epos the father, of Afrāsiyāb), or else by the Sāsānid ruler S̲h̲āpūr I (242-271) (J. Marquart, Erāns̲h̲ahr , 49). In the year 588, the town is mentioned as the seat of a Nestorian bishop ( ibid., 64; it is, howev…

(Turkic “black hat”), a Turkic people of Central Asia. In the Russian annals, a people of this name (Černiye Klobutsi) is mentioned as early as the 12th century A.D.; but whether these “black hats” are identical with the modern Ḳaraḳalpaḳ cannot be definitely ascertained. It is not until the end of the 11th/17th century that there are records of the Ḳaraḳalpaḳ, in Central Asia. According to the embassy report of Skibin and Tros̲h̲in (1694), they then lived on the Si̊r Daryā, 10 days’ journey bel…

, a small district on both sides of the middle Jaxartes at the mouth of its tributary, the Aris, which flows from Isfid̲j̲āb. It is also the name of the principal settlement in this district. The older Persian form Pārāb occurs in Ḥudūd al-ʿālam , (72, 118 ff., 122), the form Bārāb in Iṣṭak̲h̲rī (346) and Muḳaddasī (273; but also Fārāb) as well as in the later Persian sources. The extent of the district in both length and breadth was less than a day’s journey (Ibn Ḥawḳal, 390 ff.). According to Masʿūdī ( Tanbīh , 366) the region was flooded annually at the end of Ja…

(thus on his coins: Mong. Möngke-Temür, sometimes written also Mūngkā (e.g. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Blochet, 109); in Russian annals Mengutimer and Mengutemer, called also Külük “Glorious”, “Famous”), k̲h̲ān of the Golden Horde (665-79/1267-80), grandson of the k̲h̲ān Bātū [ q.v.] and son of Toḳūḳān (Tog̲h̲on). His predecessor Berke [ q.v.] died, according to al-D̲h̲ahabī, in Rabīʿ II 665/30 Dec. 1266 - 27 Jan. 1267 (see Tiesenhausen, 210-2; other Egyptian sources mention only the year). In Ṣafar 666/Oct.-Nov. 1267), an embassy left Cairo which w…

was between 1882 and 1890 the name of a district ( uězd ) in the Russian territory ( oblastʾ ) of Transcaspia, which had been conquered by the Russians in 1881. It comprised the subdistricts of Atek [ q.v.] (chief place: the village of Kaak̲h̲ka) and Durūn [ q.v.] (Darūn; chief place: Bak̲h̲arden). Since 1890 the district is called ʿAs̲h̲ḳābād [ q.v.]—The name Āk̲h̲āl (which is of modern origin) applies to the oases on the northern slope of the Kopet Dag̲h̲ and Küren Dag̲h̲; Tekke refers to the Tekke or Teke [ q.v.] Turkmen, the present inhabitants of this region. The Islamic geographe…

(alp tigin), the founder of the G̲h̲aznawid power. Like the majority of the praetorians of his time, he was a Turkish slave, purchased and enrolled in the Sāmānid body guard, who progressively rose to the rank of ḥād̲j̲ib al-ḥud̲j̲d̲j̲āb (commander-in-chief of the guard). In this capacity he wielded the real power during the reign of the young Sāmānid ʿAbd al-Malik I; the vizier Abū ʿAlī al-Balʿamī owed his appointment to him, and did not dare to take any action "without the knowledge and advice" of Alp Takīn. …

, prince of Marw 1197-1200/1783-1786, a member of the ruling branch of the house of Ḳād̲j̲ār which ruled there from the time of ʿĀbbās I [ q.v.]. In his own day, he was renowned as a valiant warrior. During a war against Murād-Bī (S̲h̲āh Maʿṣūm) of Buk̲h̲ārā, he was ambushed and killed. His second son, Muḥammad Karīm, succeeded him in Marw; his eldest son, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, dedicated his life to learning in Mas̲h̲had, and was regarded as the “Plato of his day” ( Aflāṭūn-i Waḳt ). (W. Barthold [B. Spuler]) Bibliography Mīr ʿAbd al-Karīm Buk̲h̲ārī, Histoire de l’Asie Centrale, ed. Schefer, i (t…

, occasionally Dūḳlāt , a Mongol tribe whose name, according to Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī (ed. Desmaisons, St. Petersburg 1871, i, 65), derives from the plural of the Mongol word dog̲h̲olong (-lang) “lame”. The tribe appears to have played no part in the early period of the Mongol Empire, though it is supposed always to have supported Čingiz K̲h̲ān (Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Berezin in Trudi̊ vost. otd. Imp. Russk. Ark̲h̲eol. obs̲h̲čestva , vii, 275, xiii/text 47, 52; tr. L. A. Khetagurov, Moscow-Leningrad 1952, i/1, 193). At that time the tribe apparently …

or āl barmak (Barmakids), an Iranian family of secretaries and wazīrs of the early ʿAbbāsid Caliphs. 1. Origins. The name Barmak , traditionally borne by the ancestor of the family, was not a propei name, according to certain Arab authors, but a word designating the office of hereditary high priest of the temple of Nawbahār, near Balk̲h̲. This interpretation is confirmed by the etymology which is now accepted, deriving the term from the Sanskrit word parmak — “superior, chief. The term Nawbahār, moreover, likewise derives from Sanskrit ( nōva vihāra —”new monast…

1. For all practical purposes the term Abk̲h̲āz or Afk̲h̲āz , in early Muslim sources covers Georgia and Georgians (properly Ḏj̲urzān , q.v.). The reason (cf. below under 2.) is that a dynasty issued from Abk̲h̲āzia ruled in Georgia at the time of the early ʿAbbāsids. A distinction between the Abk̲h̲ăzian dynasty and the Georgian rulers on the upper Kur is made by al-Masʿūdī, ii, 65, 74. The people properly called Abk̲h̲āz is possibly referred to only in the tradition represented by Ibn Rusta, 139: , read * Awg̲h̲az , see Marquart, Streifzüge , 164-76, and Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam …

, or burdas (in al-Bakrī furdās ), pagan tribe of the Volga basin. For an account of the Burṭās and their neighbours the Ḵh̲azars and the Bulg̲h̲ārs, to the north and south, see bulg̲h̲ār . Al-Masʿūdī ( Murūd̲j̲ , ii, 14 & Tanbīh , 62) lists Burṭās also as a river flowing into the Itil (Volga); Marquart identifies this stream with Samara ( Streifzüge , 336). The sources do not mention any adherents to Islam among the Burṭās, which contrasts with their accounts of the Ḵh̲azars and Bulg̲h̲ārs. Yāḳūt’s report on the Burṭās (i, 567) is base…

There has been no satisfactory explanation of the origin of the word. The following have been suggested: 1) as late as the 7th/13th (!) century, borrowed by the Nestorian Mission from the Syrian ṣělībhā ‘cross’, which was subsequently taken to mean a worshipper of the crucifix (Aḥmed Wefīk Pas̲h̲a, Lehd̲j̲e , loc. cit.); the same, thoug̲h taken over considerably earlier: Viktor, Baron Rosen in Zapiski Vost. Otd. v, 305 ff.; xi, 310 ff.; with additional source references also found in P. Melioranskiy, Zapiski Vost. Otd. xv, 1904, 036 ff.; cf. also Menges, as in the bibliography;…

(Turkish “warm lake”), the most important mountain lake in Turkistan and one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world, situated in between 42° 11′ and 42° 59′ N. Lat. and between 76° 15′ and 78° 30′ warm sea; the lake never freeze E. Long., 1605 m. (5,116 feet) above sea level; the length of the lake is about 115 miles, the breadth up to 37 miles, the depth up …

, Ferg̲h̲ānā, a valley on the middle Jaxartes (Si̊r-Daryā), approximately 300 km. long and 70 km. wide, surrounded by parts of the Tians̲h̲an mountains: the Čatkal range (Ar. Ḏj̲adg̲h̲al. up to 3,000 m. high) on the north, the Ferg̲h̲ānā mountains (up to 4,000 m.) on the east, and the Alai mountains (up to 6,000 m.) on the south. The only approach (7 km. wide) accessible in all seasons is in the west, at the point where the Jaxartes leaves the valley and where the trade-route (and since 1899 the railway from Samarḳand to Ōs̲h̲) enters it. The Farg̲h̲ānā valley covers approximately 23,000 km.2; t…