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, Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Wahhāb of Iṣfahān, one of the best Persian poets and stylists of the period of the early Ḳād̲j̲ārs. He was a physician in S̲h̲īrāz and kalāntār [ q.v.] and governor in his native city, devoting his leisure hours to poetry in which he displayed a great facility. He wrote verse in Arabic, Persian and Turkish and was further celebrated for his great skill in s̲h̲ikasta . Rumours of his poetical gifts induced the Ḳād̲j̲ār Fatḥ ʿAlī S̲h̲āh (1797-1834) to invite him to Tehran as court poet. There Nas̲h̲āṭ soon rose to great honour…

b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Niẓām al-Dīn Abu ’l-Maʿālī, also known as Naṣr Allāh Muns̲h̲ī, a Persian author and statesman who was born at G̲h̲azna in a family which came from S̲h̲īrāz. He served as a secretary in the dīwān of the G̲h̲aznawids. Under K̲h̲usraw Malik (555-82/1160-86) he rose to the rank of a vizier but he fell into disgrace with this sultan and was executed while in prison (cf. ʿAwfī, Lubāb , i, 92 ff.). Naṣr Allāh Muns̲h̲ī’s fame rests on his version ( Tard̲j̲uma ) of the Indian mirror for princes Kalīla wa Dimna [ q.v.] into Persian prose, which was based on the Arabic of ʿAbd Allā…

, whose full name was Muʿīn al-Dīn Muḥammad Amīn b. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Muḥammad al-Farāhī al-Harawī and whose tak̲h̲alluṣ was Muʿīnī (d. 907/1501-2), a celebrated traditionist. He studied ḥadīt̲h̲ for 31 years, and throughout this period preached every Friday in the great mosque of Harāt. He was for one year ḳāḍī of Harāt, but gave up the post by his own request. In 866/1461-2, at the request of a friend, he began to write a little book on the life of the Prophet Muḥammad. Out of this little book, there grew in time the great biographical work, exceedingly popular in the East, called Maʿārid̲j̲ , al-nub…

, Ḥasan , a Persian historian whose full name was Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥasan . Born in Nīs̲h̲āpūr, he went on the advice of his s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Muḥammad Kūfī to G̲h̲aznī to give an opportunity to his remarkable talents as a stylist. A severe illness forced him to leave G̲h̲aznī, and he went to Dihlī were he obtained an appointment as court historian to the G̲h̲ūrid Sultans and began, in 602/1206, his great historical work Tād̲j̲ al-maʾāt̲h̲ir fi ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲ , which brought him great fame. It deals with the history of the first three sultans of Dihlī—th…

(d. 1003/1594), a Persian historian, author of the celebrated Ṭabaḳāt-i Akbars̲h̲āhī . He was a descendant of the famous s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of Harāt, ʿAbd Allāh Anṣārī. His father K̲h̲ōd̲j̲a Muḳīm Harawī was major-domo to Bābur (932-7/1526-30 [ q.v.]) and later vizier to the governor of Gud̲j̲arāt Mīrzā ʿAskarī. Niẓām al-Dīn himself held several high military offices under the Great Mug̲h̲al Akbar and became in 993/1585 Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī of Gud̲j̲arāt and in 1001/1593 even Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī of the whole empire. According to Badāʾūnī (ii, 397), he died on 23 Ṣafar 1003/18 October 1594,…

, a Persian historian. His father was for 35 years in the service of the Great Mug̲h̲al Akbar (963-1014/1556-1605) where he was a k̲h̲āliṣa inspector. Niʿmat Allāh himself was for 11 years historian to D̲j̲ahāngīr (1014-37/1605-28), then entered the service of K̲h̲ān-D̲j̲ahān Lōdī [ q.v.] whom he accompanied in 1018/1609-10 on the campaign against the Deccan. Soon afterwards he became acquainted with Miyān Haybat K̲h̲ān b. Salīm K̲h̲ān Kākar of Sāmāna, who persuaded him to write a history of the reign of K̲h̲ān-D̲j̲ahān. Niʿmat Allāh bega…

, Nawwāb , thirteenth son of the celebrated Rohilla leader Ḥāfiẓ al-Mulk Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān (1707-74) and author of a biography of his father, which he wrote in Persian under the title Gulistān-i Raḥmat . Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān, who was an Afg̲h̲ān of the tribe of Yūsufzāy by descent, had been since 1161/1748 a chief in Rohilk̲h̲and (Kat́ahr) and throughout his life waged a bitter warfare with the Marāt́hās. He fell in 1188/1774 in a fight at Mīrānpūr Katra where he was fighting against the combined forces of the Nawwāb of Oudh (Awadh [ q.v.]) S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ al-Mulk and the English. Warren Ha…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn (d. 751/1350), a famous Persian author (not to be confused with the famous Ṣūfī S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Abū Turāb Nak̲h̲s̲h̲abī, d. 245/860). Very little is known of his career. His nisba suggests that he came from Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab [ q.v.], but he went to India where he became a murīd of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Farīd, a descendant of the celebrated S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ḥamīd al-Dīn Nāgūrī. The Ak̲h̲bār al-ak̲h̲yār of ʿAbd al-Ḥaḳḳ Dihlawī (Dihlī 1309/1891-2, 104-7) ¶ says that he died in Badāʾūn after a long and contemplative life and that his tomb is there. Nak̲h̲s̲h̲abī was a pro…

, Mīrzā , Muns̲h̲ī of the Ḳad̲j̲ār prince D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Mīrzā and translator into Persian of the famous comedies of the Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ānī playwright Mīrzā Fatḥ ʿAlī Āk̲h̲undzāde [ q.v.]. After they had been published (1859), Mīrzā Fatḥ ʿAlī sent a copy of his plays to the above-mentioned Ḳād̲j̲ār prince in the hope that he would take notice of it. But the book lay unheeded for years in the prince’s library until Muḥammad D̲j̲aʿfar opened it by chance. The muns̲h̲ī , delighted with the plays, at once decided to translate them into Persian. As no-one …

, the tak̲h̲alluṣ or pen-name of Yūsuf b. Muḥammad b. Yūsuf K̲h̲urāsānī, native of K̲h̲wāf and émigré to India, where he became physician to the Mug̲h̲al emperors Bābur and Humāyūn [ q.vv.] and a prolific writer on medical topics. It is also very probably the same Yūsufī who is the author of an ins̲h̲āʾ collection (see below). Several of his Persian medical works are extant, including a Dalāʾil al-bawl on diagnosis through examination of the urine; a Dalāʾil al-nabḍ on interpretation of the pulse; various ḳaṣīda s and ḳiṭʿa s on medical topics; rubāʿiyyāt , on which…

, Mīrzā Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad , son of Ḥakīm Fatḥ al-Dīn S̲h̲īrāzī, a Persian author, was born in India and came of a family several of whom had been distinguished physicians in their ancestral home in S̲h̲īrāz. He entered the service of the state under S̲h̲āh-D̲j̲ahān (1037-68/1628-57) and was appointed keeper of the crown jewels with the title of dārūg̲h̲a-yi d̲j̲awāhir-k̲h̲āna . He attained his highest honours under Awrangzīb (1069-1118/1659-1707), who gave him the title of Niʿmat K̲h̲ān (1104/1692-3), which was later changed to Muḳ…

b. Ḳāḍī Mubārak , known as K̲h̲alīl Ṣūfī, author of a PersianTurkish dictionary entitled Lug̲h̲at-i Niʿmat Allāh . Born in Sofia, where as an enameller he made a reputation as an artist, he moved to Istanbul and there entered the Naḳs̲h̲bandī order. Association with the Naḳs̲h̲bandī dervishes made him more closely acquainted with literature and especially with Persian poetry. Niʿmat Allāh decided to make accessible to others the knowledge he had acquired by an ardent study of Persian litera…

, Muḥammad Riḍā of K̲h̲abūs̲h̲ān, in the vicinity of Mas̲h̲had, a Persian poet of the 10th/16th century. The son of a merchant, in his youth he spent some time in Kās̲h̲ān where he studied under Mawlānā Muḥtas̲h̲am. Moving to Marw, he became intimate with Ḥākim Nūr Muḥammad K̲h̲ān there. Like the majority of Persian poets of his time, however, he was attracted by the brilliant court of the Mug̲h̲als and went to India, where at first he found a patron in the person of Mīrzā Yūsuf K̲h̲ān Mas̲h̲hadī, but soon afterwards entered the service of the K̲h̲ānk̲h̲ānān [ q.v.] Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Raḥīm and r…

(d. in Dihlī on 6 Ramaḍān 1108/29 March 1697, one of the best of the Persian poets of India, who were by this time very numerous; their productions however are for the most part of little artistic value. Of his life we know only that he travelled a great deal but finally settled in ¶ Sirhind, where he enjoyed the favour of the governor Sayf K̲h̲ān Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ī and of the Amīr al-Umarāʾ D̲h̲u ’l-Fiḳār K̲h̲ān. His principal work is a version of the love story of Madhumalat and Manūhar in Persian verse, the original having …

(d. 933/1526-7), Persian writer and author of the famous Futūḥ al-Ḥaramayn , a poetical description of the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina, which also contains a full account of all the rites of the obligatory pilgrimage ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ). This book, written in 911/1506 and dedicated to Muẓaffar b. Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh of Gud̲j̲arāt (917-32/1511-26), was for a long time wrongly attributed to the celebrated poet ʿAbd al-Raḥmān D̲j̲āmī [ q.v.]. Muḥyī Lārī was a pupil of the great philosopher D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Dawānī (d. 907/1501 [ q.v.]) and made use of his extensive philosophical…

, Bark̲h̲wurdar b. Maḥmud Turkmān Farāhī , a Persian writer, a contemporary of the Ṣafawid Sultan Ḥusayn I (1105-35/1694-1722). At an early age, he left his native town of Farāh in Afg̲h̲ānistān and went to Marw, where he entered the service of the governor Aṣlān K̲h̲ān. After two years, however, he left this post and became muns̲h̲ī [ q.v.] with Ḥasan Ḳūlī K̲h̲ān S̲h̲āmlū Ḳūrčī-bas̲h̲ī in Iṣfahān. At a banquet there at his master’s house he heard a story which attracted him exceedingly. He wrote it down and it became the foundation of a great collection, the Maḥfil-ārā …

, a Persian mystic. Amīr Nūr al-Dīn Niʿmat Allāh, son of Mīr ʿAbd Allāh, and a descendant of the fifth imām of the S̲h̲īʿa, Bākir, the founder of the Niʿmat Allāhī order, is highly esteemed in Persia as a great saint and wonder-worker. He was born in Ḥalab in ¶ 730—731 (1329—1330/1), spent his early years in the ʿIrāḳ and went to Mecca at the age of 24 where he became a pupil and k̲h̲alīfa of the famous S̲h̲aik̲h̲ ʿAbd Allāh Yāfiʿī [see yāfiʿī]. After his teacher’s death, he went to Samarḳand, then visited Herāt and Yazd and finally settled in Māhān, 8 farsak̲h̲s from Kirmān, …

, Amīr Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik, one of the most famous of Persian court poets. His place of birth is not exactly known. According to most of the sources he was born in Samarḳand about 440 (1048—1049) but Nasā and Nīs̲h̲āpūr are also mentioned. The son of a little known poet ʿAbd al-Malik Burhānī, who was attached to the court of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ Alp Arslān (1063 —1072), he was introduced to Sulṭān Malik-S̲h̲āh (1072—1092) by Amīr ʿAlī b. Farāmurz, ruler of Yazd (443-488 = 1051/1502—1095), made a favourable impression on the sulṭān and received from him the tak̲h̲alluṣ of Muʿizzī,…

, Muḥammad Riḍā of Ḵh̲abūs̲h̲ān in the vicinity of Mas̲h̲had, a Persian poet. The son of a merchant, in his youth he spent some time in Kās̲h̲ān where he studied under the Mawlānā Muḥtas̲h̲am. Moving to Marw, he became intimate with the Ḥākim Nūr Muḥammad Ḵh̲ān there. Like the majority of Persian poets of the xvith century, however, he was attracted by the brilliant court of the Mog̲h̲uls and went to India where at first he found a patron in the person of Mīrzā Yūsuf Ḵh̲ān Mas̲h̲hadī but soon afterwards entered the service of Ḵh̲ānk̲h̲ānān Mīrzā ʿAb…

whose full name was Muʿīn al-Dīn Muḥammad Amīn b. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Muḥammad al-Farāhī al-Harawī and whose tak̲h̲alluṣ was Muʿīnī (d. 907=1501—1502), a celebiated traditionist. He studied Ḥadīt̲h̲ for 31 years and throughout this period preached every Friday in the great mosque of Herāt. He was for year ḳāḍī of Herāt but gave up the post by his own request. In 866 (1461—1462) at the request of a friend, he began to write a little book on the life of the Prophet Muḥammad. Out of this little book there grew in time the great biographical work, exceedingly popular in the East, called Maʿārid̲j̲ al-Nubu…