b. al-Walīd al-mak̲h̲zūmī , the only surviving son of the famous Arab general. At the age of eighteen he commanded a squadron at the battle of the Yarmūk. Muʿāwiya subsequently appointed him governor of Ḥimṣ and he commanded several of the later Syrian expeditions ¶ into Anatolia. During the civil war, after successfully opposing an ʿIrāḳī expedition into the Ḏj̲azīra. he joined Muʿāwiya at Ṣiffīn and was made standard-bearer. According to the received tradition, Muʿāwiya, fearing that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān might be a rival of Yazīd for the succ…

b. muḥammad al-kās̲h̲ānī , s̲h̲araf al-dīn abū naṣr , was treasurer and ʿāriḍ al-d̲j̲ays̲h̲ to the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultan, Muḥammad b. Maliks̲h̲āh. After being succeeded by S̲h̲ams al-Mulk b. Niẓām al-Mulk as ʿāriḍ al-d̲j̲ays̲h̲ he went to Bag̲h̲dād. He was imprisoned during the reign of Maḥmūd b. Maliks̲h̲āh for a short period but subsequently appointed wazīr by Maḥmūd (521/1127-522/1128). From 526/1132-528/1134 he was wazīr to the caliph, al-Mustars̲h̲id. In 529/1134 he became wazīr to Masʿūd b. Muḥammad and held office until 530/1135-6. He died in Bag̲h̲dād in 533/113…

, al-Ḥusayn b. al-Walīd b. Naṣr , Abu ’l-Ḳāsim , Andalusian man of letters in the 4th/10th century. He was known principally as a grammarian, and was always called al-Naḥwī. He was brought up in Cordova, his native city, under the guidance of Ibn al-Ḳūṭiyya [ q.v.], and in Ifrīḳiya under that of Ibn Ras̲h̲īḳ. He spent several years in Egypt, where he outshone his brother al-Ḥasan, also known by the name of Ibn al-ʿArīf (d. 367/977-8), and, on his return to Spain, the ḥād̲j̲ib al-Manṣūr Ibn Abī ʿĀmir appointed him tutor ( muʾaddib ) to his sons. He always took part in the literary gatherings ( mad̲j̲ā…

(d. 235/849), a K̲h̲azar military slave or g̲h̲ulām [ q.v.] who had been bought in 199/815 by the future caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, and who played an important role in the reigns of his master, of al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ and of al-Mutawakkil. At the opening of al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ’s caliphate, he was, with As̲h̲nās, the “mainstay of die caliphate”. After being commander of die guard in Sāmarrā, in 233/847 he was made governor of Egypt, but delegated his powers there to Hart̲h̲ama b. Naṣr (Ibn Tag̲h̲rībardī, Nud̲j̲ūm , ii, 265; al-Maḳrīzī, K̲h̲iṭaṭ , ed. Wiet, v, 136). It was he who, in…

( or ), the nickname of a personage whom popular imagination made the hero of a few hundred jests, anecdotes and amusing stories. The oldest literary instance of this name goes back to the first half of the 3rd/9th century, in al-D̲j̲āḥiẓ, who numbers D̲j̲uḥā among others renowned for their follies ( Risāla fi ’l-Ḥakamayn , ed. Pellat, in Machriq , 1958, 431), and attributes to him futile schemes and an extraordinary tendency to make mistakes and blunders; the same author also quotes ( K. al-Big̲h̲āl , ed. Pellat, Cairo 1955, 36) a story borrowed from Abu ’l…

, a Persian dynasty which ruled in Transoxania and then in Ḵh̲urāsān also, at first as subordinate governors of the Ṭāhirids [ q.v.] and then later autonomous, virtually independent rulers (204-395/819-1005). ¶ 1. History, literary life and economic activity. The early history of the Sāmānid family is obscure. They may have stemmed either from Sog̲h̲dia or, perhaps more likely, from Ṭuk̲h̲āristān south of the Oxus, probably from the petty landowners of the Balk̲h̲ area. It was not possible to connect the Sāmānids with a noble Arab tr…

or al-Ḳūhī , Abū Sahl Wayd̲j̲ān b. Rustam, mathematician and astronomer who was originally from Ṭabaristān. He worked in the second half of the 4th/10th century under the Būyid amīr s ʿAḍud al-Dawla and S̲h̲araf al-Dawla [ q.vv.] and collaborated with the chief scholars of the time, notably Abu ’l-Wafāʾ al-Būzad̲j̲ānī, al-Sid̲j̲zī, al-Ṣāg̲h̲ānī and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī. Under the latter’s direction, al-Kūhī took part in observation of the winter and summer solstices at S̲h̲īrāz (15 December 969 and 16 June 970), by means of a mer…

, Turkish tribe in Iran. It is not mentioned in any 10th/16th or 11th/17th century sources. Originally a member of the famous S̲h̲āmlu tribe during the Ṣafawid period, the tribe must have taken its name from one of its beys; it is probable that it originated in the Bey Dili sub-tribe of the S̲h̲āmlu. The homeland of the Ḳara Gözlü was the Hamadān region, but in the mid-20th century there was a small branch known by the same name in Fars. The Ḳarā Gözlü had abandoned a fully nomadic life as early as the beginning of the 19th century, and lived in la…

, Mīr Abu ’l-Ḳāsim b. Mīrzā Ḥusaynī Astarābādī , known in Persia as Mīr Findiriskī, Persian scholar and philosopher. He was probably born in Iṣfahān, where he studied and spent much of his life. He also travelled extensively in India, and died in Iṣfahān in 1050/1640-1. His tomb is located in the Tak̲h̲t-i Fūlād cemetery, and this shrine is visited by many devotees throughout the year. Mīr Findiriskī was one of the most famous of the philosophers and scientists of the Ṣafawid perio…

, a sub-order of the Central Asian Naḳs̲h̲bandiyya [ q.v.] Ṣūfī ṭarīḳa and the most prominent s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ly family of Balk̲h̲ from the middle of the 9th/15th century. The eponymous founder of the line was K̲h̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd (or Muḥammad) al-Ḥāfiẓī al-Buk̲h̲ārī(d. 822/1419), who adopted the nickname Pārsā (“the devout”). His tomb in Medina became a shrine for Central Asian pilgrims and the burial place of at least one Central Asian grand k̲h̲ān, the Tuḳāy-Tīmūrid, Imām Ḳulī (r. 1020-51/1611-41). K̲h̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad Pārsā’s son, Abū Naṣr, seems to have been the f…

, the name of a mystical-theological school in Baṣra, based on the teachings of Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Sālim (d. 297/909) and his son Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Sālim (d. 356/967). In the sources, father and son are often confused. Both were pupils of the famous mystic Sahl b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī (d. 282/896 [ q.v.]), Muḥammad b. Aḥmad for as long as 60 years; he therefore is to be considered as the main pupil of al-Tustarī. While Muḥammad b. Aḥmad has a separate entry in the Ṣūfī lexica and handbooks (such as those by Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī [ q.v.], ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī [see al-anṣārī al-harawī …

, eminent Persian poet of the 5th/11th century ( ca. 440/1046 to ca. 515/1121-2) who early and late in his life enjoyed position and fame at the G̲h̲aznawid court, but spent some eighteen years of his maturity in onerous imprisonment. As a poet, he is most famous for the powerful and eloquent laments he wrote from his various places of incarceration [see ḥabsiyya in Suppl.]. Masʿūd-i Saʿd was born in Lahore to a family of means and education. The family’s original home was Hamadān, but had been settled in the region long enough for his f…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ismāʿīl al-Dībād̲j̲ b. Ibrāhīm al-G̲h̲amr b. al-Ḥasan al-Mut̲h̲annā , Ḥasanid, d. 1 Rad̲j̲ab 199/15 February 815. The sources generally give the by-name of Ṭabāṭabā to Muḥammad’s grandfather, who owed it to a defect in pronunciation, but the ʿUmdat al-ṭālib calls his father Ibrāhīm by this name and explains it by relating an anecdote according to which Ismāʿīl, ordering a garment for his son, said ṭabā instead of ḳabā . This same text states however that the expression ṭabāṭabā means, in the common language, sayyid al-sādāt …

b. Ziyār b. Wardāns̲h̲āh , Abu ’l-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ , founder of the Ziyārid dynasty [ q.v.] in the Caspian regions of Persia. Mardāwid̲j̲’s rise as a soldier of fortune in northern Persia is bound up with the decline of direct caliphal control there, seen already in the independent role of the Sād̲j̲id governors [ q.v.] in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān towards the end of the 3rd/9th century and in the general upsurge of hitherto submerged indigenous Iranian elements, Daylamī, D̲j̲īlī and Kurdish, forming what has been called the “Daylamī interlude” of Persian history [see ḍaylam , and also buwayhids , k…

(a.), literally “permission”, dispensation”. 1. In law. ¶ Here, ruk̲h̲ṣa is a legal ruling relaxing or suspending by way of exception under certain circumstances an injunction of a primary and general nature ( ʿazīma [ q.v.]). The general obligation to fast during Ramaḍān is, by way of rukhṣa , suspended during the days of an illness or a journey, under condition that these days are made up after Ramaḍān. Similarly, the general prohibition to eat meat that has not been ritually slaughtered is suspended if a Muslim could …

, a city in a large oasis in present day Uzbekistān on the lower course of the Zarafs̲h̲ān River. The city is 722 ft. (222.4 m.) above sea level and is located at 64° 38′ E. long. (Greenw.) and 39° 43′ N. Lat. We have few references to the city in pre-Islamic times. In the time of Alexander the Great there was ariother town in Sogdiana besides Marakanda (Samarḳand) on the lower course of the river but it probably did not correspond to the modern city of Buk̲h̲ārā. The oasis was inhabited from early times and towns certainly existed there. The earliest literary occurrence of the name is in Chin…

, born 182/798, died 230/844, was a poet, general, statesman, confidant of caliphs and, as governor of Ḵh̲urāsān, almost an independent sovereign. His father, Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn, had founded the powerful Ṭāhirid [ q.v.] dynasty which ruled over a territory extending from al-Rayy to the Indian frontier, with its capital at Naysābūr. In 206/821-2 the caliph al-Maʾmūn appointed ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir governor of the region between al-Raḳḳa and Egypt and at the same time he was placed in command of the caliph’s troops in the campaign against Naṣr b. S̲h…

, 6th/12th century Persian writer of ḳaṣīdas , generally known by the names of ʿImādī G̲h̲aznawī and ʿImādī S̲h̲āhriyārī. He began his career as a soldier in the army of Sulṭān Masʿūd III ¶ of G̲h̲aznīn (d. 508/1114), and later migrated to the court of ʿImād al-Dawla Farāmarz at Rayy, in whose praise he composed the largest number of odes. Some time before ʿImād al-Dawla’s death, ʿImādī made a second migration to the Court of the Sald̲j̲ūḳid Sultān Tug̲h̲rul b. Muḥammad b. Malik S̲h̲āh (d. 529/1134). Among his many patrons, the following may be mentioned: Malik Arg̲h…

, Abū Naṣr Ḵh̲usraw-Fīrūz , Būyid amīr , d. 450/1058. When Abū Kālīd̲j̲ār, ruler in K̲h̲ūzistān. Fārs, Kirmān, ʿUmān and Baṣra in parallel with his uncle D̲j̲alāl al-Dawla [ q.v.] of Bag̲h̲dād, died in 440/1048, the eldest of his ten or so sons, K̲h̲usraw-Fīrūz. succeeded as amīr with the title, unwillingly extracted from the caliph, of al-Malik al-Raḥīm. However, his succession was challenged by various of his brothers, and especially by Fūlād-Sutūn, and during his seven years’ reign, K̲h̲usraw-Fīrūz reigned undisputedly only in ʿIrāḳ, wit…

, Ṣafawid prince, second son of Muḥammad K̲h̲udābanda, born ca. 973/1565-6. In 985/1577 S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl II ordered that Ḥamza Mīrzā be put to death at S̲h̲īrāz, together with his father and brother, Abū Ṭālib, but Ismaʿīl II was assassinated before the order could be carried out. After the accession of his weak and purblind father, as Sulṭan Muḥammad S̲h̲āh, in D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 985/February 1578, Ḥamza Mīrzā was made heir-apparent at the instance of his mother, Mahd-i ʿUlyā, who, until her murder by the ḳi̊zi̊lbās̲h̲ [ q.v.] in 987/1579, was the real power behind the throne; …