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a baḵš and its town on the southern fringes of the Dašt-e Kavīr.A version of this article is available in printVolume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 2 ANĀRAK, a baḵš and its town on the southern fringes of the Dašt-e Kavīr (33° 20’ north latitude and 53° 35’ east longitude). It lies in a basin fifty miles northeast of Nāʾīn and seventy-seven miles north of Ardestān, with the low range of the Kūh-e Āšīn to its southwest. It does not seem to be mentioned by the classical Arabic and Persian geographers. Qanāts provide irrigation for a certain amount of cereal cultivation, and carpet weaving is a l…

title given to various dynastic rulers of Ḵᵛārazm (see CHORASMIA).KHWARAZMSHAH i. AFRIGHIDS See ĀL-E AFRIḠ. KHWARAZMSHAH ii. MAʾMUNIDS See ĀL-E MAʾMUN. KHWARAZMSHAH iii. LINE OF ANUŠTIGIN After the Saljuq takeover in Khwarazm in the early 1040s, the Saljuq Sultans appointed various governors in the province, including Alp Arslān’s (r. 1063-72) son Arslān Arḡun, a son of the vizier Neẓām-al-Molk (1018-92), and several Turkish ḡolām commanders (see BARDA AND BARDADĀRI). One of these last was Anuštigin Ḡarčaʾi, Malek Šāh’s (r. 1073-92) ṭaštdār, or keeper of the royal washing b…

an Islamic dynasty of Turkish slave origin 977-1186, which in its heyday ruled in the eastern Iranian lands, briefly as far west as Ray and Jebāl; for a while in certain regions north of the Oxus, most notably, in Kᵛārazm; and in Baluchistan and in northwestern India.A version of this article is available in printVolume X, Fascicle 6, pp. 578-583 GHAZNAVIDS, an Islamic dynasty of Turkish slave origin (366-582/977-1186), which in its heyday ruled in the eastern Iranian lands, briefly as far west as Ray and Jebāl; for a while in certain regions north of th…

Name of (1) a small town in northern Fārs province, and (2) a medieval town near the northern shore of Lake Baḵtegān in Fārs.A version of this article is available in printVolume I, Fascicle 1, pp. 51i. Town in Northern FārsThe name of a small town in northern Fārs province, lying to the northeast of the chaîne magistrale of the Zagros at an altitude of 2,011 m/6,200 ft in 52°40 ′ east longitude and 31°11 ′ north latitude. It is on the easterly (formally the winter, now the all-weather) main Isfahan-Shiraz highway, 204 km from the former and 280 km fr…

(“The marvels of created things”), the name of a genre of classical Islamic literature and, in particular, of a work by Zakarīyāʾ b. Moḥammad Qazvīnī.A version of this article is available in printVolume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 696-699i. Arabic WorksWorks of this sort form part of a general interest by Muslim scholars in the monuments and buildings of classical antiquity, whether of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Persia; in physical and topographical phenomena, such as unusual springs and wells, mineral deposits, volcanoes, etc.; and in t…

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…

“country of the Balās,” designating a region located for the most part south of the lower course of the rivers Kor (Kura) and the Aras (Araxes), bordered on the south by Atropatene and on the east by the Caspian Sea. i. In pre-Islamic times. ii. In Islamic times.A version of this article is available in printVolume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 580-582i. In Pre-Islamic Times The country and its inhabitants. The heart of this country was the dašt i-Bałasakan “Balāsagān plain,” which the Armenian Geography of Pseudo-Moses of Khorene (Adontz, p. 124*) places in Albania and which is …

Nishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the province of Khorasan. It flourished in Sasanid and early Islamic times, but after the devastations of the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, subsided into a more modest role until it revived in the 20th century. i. Historical Geography and History to the Beginning of the 20th CenturyNishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the province of Khorasan. It flourished in Sasanid and early Islamic times, but after the devastations of …

region on the lower reaches of the Oxus (Amu Darya) in western Central Asia.A version of this article is available in printVolume V, Fascicle 5, pp. 511-520 CHORASMIA (Gk. Chorasmiē < OPers. (H)uwārazmiš, Av. Xᵛāirizəm, later Ḵᵛārazm [Khwārazm], generally derived from * hwāra-zam/zmī-, either “nourishing land” [Burnouf, p. cviii; Sachau, p. 473; Geiger, p. 29;  Pauly-Wissowa III/2, cols. 2406-8] or “lowland” [Lerch, p. 447; Veselovskiĭ, p. v; Kiepert, no. 60; MacKenzie,  Camb. Hist. Iran III/2, p. 1244; Bogolyubov, p. 370, has suggested “land with good cattle enclo…

ASB, “horse” ( equus cabullus, Av. aspa-, Old PerS. asa- and aspa-, Mid. and NPers. asp/b); uses and significance of horses in the Iranian world. A version of this article is available in printVolume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 724-737 ASB, “horse” ( equus cabullus, Av. aspa-, Old PerS. asa- and aspa-, Mid. and NPers. asp/b).i. In Pre-Islamic IranFrom the dawn of history the Iranians have celebrated the horse in their art and in their literature.There were horses closely related to (and also the progenitors of) present-day domesticated horses living in temperate Eurasia in th…

province of Iran located between Fars and Sistan va Balučestān; also the name of its principal city and capital.A version of this article is available in printVolume XVI, Fascicle 3, pp. 246-315 KERMAN (Kermān), a province in southeastern Iran; also the name of one of its sub-provinces as well as that of its principal city and capital.KERMAN i. Geography Physical geography. Kerman province is situated in southeast Iran, to the southwest of the Kavir-e Lut (see DESERT). Covering an area of 182,000 km2 (70,000 square miles), Kerman is the largest province in Persia, constitutin…

A version of this article is available in printVolume VI, Fascicle 4, pp. 356-388COURTS AND COURTIERS i. In the Median and Achaemenid periodsAvailable information on the Median and Achaemenid imperial courts is very limited and not entirely reliable. From Herodotus’ report (1.114) of the child Cyrus’ playing at being king it seems that the Median court included bodyguards, messengers, the “king’s eye” (a kind of secret agent; see below), and builders, for it is likely that the game was modeled on the existing court (…

(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 …