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(d. 448/1056), intelligence officer in Khorasan under the early Ghaznavids. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 972 AMĪRAK BAYHAQĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD ʿANBARĪ (d. 448/1056), intelligence officer ( ṣāḥeb-barīd) in Khorasan under the early Ghaznavids. He stemmed from a prominent Bayhaq family of scholars and officials, the ʿAnbarīān (q.v.), who had shortly before produced the poet and vizier Abu’l-ʿAbbās ʿAnbarī. Abu’l-Ḥasan was a landowner in Bayhaq, where he built a madrasa; his main claim to fame was that he acted as castel…

An Arabic chronicle on the history of the Great Saljuq dynasty in Iran and Iraq. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 712-713 AḴBĀR AL- DAWLAT AL- SALJŪQĪYA, an Arabic chronicle on the history of the Great Saljuq dynasty in Iran and Iraq, conventionally ascribed to the person mentioned at the head of the work as “al-Amīr al-Sayyed al-Emām al-Aǰall al-Kabīr Ṣadr-al-dīn Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Sayyed al-Aǰall al-Emām al-Šahīd Abu’l-Fawāres Nāṣer b. ʿAlī al-Ḥosaynī;” this same heading names the work itself as the Zobdat al-tawārīḵ aḵbār al-omarāʾ wa’l…

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…

a celebrated geographical work in Arabic written towards the end of the 4th/10th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 679-680 AḤSAN AL- TAQĀSĪM FĪ MAʿREFAT AL-AQĀLĪM, a celebrated geographical work in Arabic written towards the end of the 4th/10th century by Šams-al-dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Moḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Bannāʾ al-Šāmī al-Maqdesī al-Baššārī (thus named in one of the two surviving principal manuscripts of his work). The form al-Maqdesī is preferable to al-Moqaddesī; in Samʿānī’s Ketāb al-ansāb (Leiden, fol. 539b), we find o…

Turkish name associated with personalities before and during the Ghaznavid period. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 254-255 BILGETIGIN (Turkish bilge “wise man, counselor,” an element found in the onomastic of the Orkhon inscriptions, e.g., Bilge Kaḡan, plus tigin “prince”; cf. Clauson, Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, Oxford, 1972, pp. 340, 483), in the sources written Belkātekīn. 1. The name of a Turkish governor in Ḡazna in the years before the assumption of power there by Sebüktigin (q.v.)…

a Saljuq princess who became the second wife of the Ghaznavid Sultan Masʿud III (r. 1099-1115). A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 2, pp. 179 GOWHAR ḴĀTUN, a Saljuq princess who became the second wife of the Ghaznavid Sultan Masʿud III (r. 492-508/1099-1115). Because the Saljuq Sultan Malekšāh (q.v.) sent her from Ray to Ḡazna with a lavish wedding cortège, on which his vizier Neẓām-al-Molk had expended 100,000 dinars, she is known in the sources for Ghaznavid history as the Mahd-e ʿErāq “bride from ʿErāq[-e ʿAjami or Western Persia”] (Ḥo-sayni, pp…

(d. Khorasan 999), Turkish eunuch and slave commander of the Samanid army in Transoxania and Khorasan during the closing decades of that dynasty’s power. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 2, pp. 156 FĀʾEQ ḴĀṢṢA, ABU’L-ḤASAN (d. Khorasan 389/999), Turkish eunuch and slave commander of the Samanid army in Transoxania and Khorasan during the closing decades of that dynasty’s power. Except that he was part of the Samanid amirs’ slave guard nothing is known of Fāʾeq’s antecedents, but at the beginning of the reign of the minor Nūḥ …

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…

Ancient town of lower Iraq between Baṣra and Vāseṭ, to the east of the Tigris, in the region adjacent to Ahvāz, known in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times as Mēšūn (Mid. Pers. form) or Maysān/Mayšān (Syriac and Arabic forms). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 1, pp. 64 ABARQOBĀḎ, an ancient town of lower Iraq between Baṣra and Vāseṭ, to the east of the Tigris, in the region adjacent to Ahvāz, known in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times as Mēšūn (Mid. Pers. form) or Maysān/Mayšān (Syriac and Arabic forms). The correct form of the town name is given by Dīnavarī ( al-…

B. MOḤAMMAD QOMĪ (d. 1099), mostawfī or financial intendant to the Saljuq sultan Berk-yaruq (Barkīāroq) b. Malekšāh and then vizier. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 583 BALĀSĀNĪ, MAJD-AL- MOLK ABUʾL- FAŻL ASʿAD B. MOḤAMMAD QOMĪ, mostawfī or financial intendant to the Saljuq sultan Berk-yaruq (Barkīāroq) b. Malekšāh in the early years of the latter’s reign and then, from 490/1097 until his death in 492/1099, vizier to that monarch. The nesba also appears in the form Barāvestānī, from the name of a village in the region of Qom. Majd-al-Molk had been m…

or ḴᵛĪŠĀVAND, ZAʿĪM-AL-ḤOJJĀB, Turkish military commander of the early Ghaznavids Maḥmūd, Moḥammad and Masʿūd I. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 872 ʿALĪ B. IL-ARSLAN QARĪB or ḴᵛĪŠĀVAND, ZAʿĪM-AL-ḤOJJĀB, Turkish military commander of the early Ghaznavids Maḥmūd, Moḥammad and Masʿūd I, and a dominant figure in the disputes over the succession at Maḥmūd’s death in 421/1030. Under Sultan Maḥmūd, ʿAlī had been commander-in-chief ( ḥāǰeb-e bozorg, al-ḥāǰeb al-kabīr) of the army; the designation qarīb/ḵᵛīšāvand “kinsman” may denote actual …

(Āl-e Ziār), a minor Islamic dynasty of the Caspian coastlands (931- ca. 1090). They ruled first in northern Iran, and then in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān. ZIYARIDS (Āl-e Ziār), a minor Islamic dynasty of the Caspian coastlands (931- ca. 1090).They ruled first in northern Iran, and then in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān. The Ziyarids belonged to hitherto submerged mountain peoples, notably the Deylamites, Gilites (Gelae; see GILĀN iv, EIr X/6, p. 634), and Kurds, whose rise to power constitutes the “Daylami intermezzo” of Iranian history (Minorsky).After the decline of direc…

a slave commander of the Samanids and the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty in eastern Afghanistan. SEBÜKTEGIN, ABU MANṢUR NĀṢER-AL-DIN Wa’l-DAWLA, a slave commander of the Samanids (q.v.) and the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty in eastern Afghanistan. The Turkish name Sebüktegin means “beloved prince,” but the second element ( tegin “prince”) had declined in status from Orkhon Turkish times, becoming part of the onomastic of Turkish slave ( ḡolām) commanders under the ʿAbbasids (Golden, pp. 52-53). Sebüktegin was probably born in the 330s/940s. The sparse details of his…

ṢAFFĀRĪ, military commander and second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Sīstān (r. 879-900). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 9990-991 ʿAMR B. LAYṮ ṢAFFĀRĪ, military commander and second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Sīstān (r. 265-87/879-900). Though of humble birth, the four Saffarid brothers from the Sīstān countryside were able to further their military ambitions by joining the ʿayyār bands that had originally arisen there to combat the local Ḵawāreǰ sectaries. While Yaʿqūb b. Layṯ was building up in Afghanistan an…

4th-5th/10th-11th century poet and prose stylist of Khorasan and statesman in the service of the Qarakhanids. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 6 ʿANBARĪ, ABU’L-ʿABBĀS ESMĀʿĪL B. ʿALĪ B. AL-ṬAYYEB, 4th-5th/10th-11th century poet and prose stylist of Khorasan and statesman in the service of the Qarakhanids. He stemmed from an important family of Bayhaq of Arab origin, the ʿAnbarīān (q.v.), from whom had originated many scholars and traditionists (see the section on them in Ebn Fondoq, Tārīḵ-e Bayhaq, ed. A. Bahmanyār, Tehran, 1317 Š./1938,…

b. Moḥammad, Abu Aḥmad (d. 399/1009), Amir in Sistān of the “second line” of Saffarids, who ruled between 352/963 and 393/1003 and may be termed “the Khalafids” after an ancestor (the grandfather of the restored Amir Abu Jaʿfar Aḥmad). A version of this article is available in print Volume XV, Fascicle 4, pp. 362-363 b. Moḥammad, Abu Aḥmad (d. 399/1009), amir in Sistān of the “second line” of Saffarids, who ruled between 352/963 and 393/1003 and may be termed “the Khalafids” after an ancestor (the grandfather of the restored Amir Abu Jaʿfar Aḥmad).…

a Turkish commander who controlled the town of Bost in southern Afghanistan during the middle years of the 10th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 14 BAYTUZ, a Turkish commander who controlled the town of Bost in southern Afghanistan during the middle years of the 4th/10th century. Turkish control of the town dated from the time when the Samanid slave ( ḡolām) commander Qaratigin Esfījābī had withdrawn to Bost and the adjacent region of Roḵḵaj (at some time before his death in 317/929) where his followers apparently…

b. Manṣūr (d. Ahvā, 1074), vizier to the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Qāʾem from 9 May 1061 to 9 December 1062. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 11-12 EBN DĀROST, MAJD-AL- WOZARĀʾ MOḤAMMAD b. Manṣūr (d. Ahvā, 467/1074), vizier to the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Qāʾem from 15 Rabīʿ II 453/9 May 1061 to 4 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 454/9 December 1062. He seems to have been a native of Fārs, where he had been a wealthy merchant connected with the Buyid Abū Kālījār Marzbān. With the arrival of the Saljuqs in Iraq, the caliph w…

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…

or ESFARĀʾĪN; a district, and in pre-modern Islamic times, a town, of northwestern Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 6, pp. 595 ESFARĀYEN, ESFARĀʾĪN ( Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, pp. 64, 102, has “*Siparāyin” [Sabarāyen], possibly influenced by a popular etymology given, e.g. by Yāqūt, Boldān (Beirut), I, p. 177 “shield bearers”), a district, and in pre-modern Islamic times, a town, of northwestern Khorasan. It lay on the northern edge of the long plain stretching from Gorgān and modern Šāhrūd in th…

ROKN-AL-DĪN ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR B. MALEKŠĀH, Great Saljuq sultan (r. 1092-1105); his reign conventionꏂally marks the opening stages of the decline of Great Saljuq unity. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 800-801 BARKĪĀROQ, ROKN-AL-DĪN ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR B. MALEKŠĀH, Great Saljuq sultan (r. 485-98/1092-1105). Barkīāroq (properly, Berk-yaruq, Tk. “firm, strong brightness,” see Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, pp. 361-62, 761-63) was the eldest of Malekšāh’s sons, but still only thirteen on…

an Arab dynasty that ruled in central Iraq with their capital at Ḥira for roughly three centuries, from about 300 to 602 CE, generally but intermittently as the allies and clients of the Sasanian kings of Persia. LAKHMIDS, an Arab dynasty that ruled in central Iraq with their capital at Ḥira for roughly three centuries, from about 300 to 602 CE, generally but intermittently as the allies and clients of the Sasanian kings of Persia, with especially close links in the sixth century, when the Lakhmids were bulwarks of the Sasanian pos…

the title of a geographical work composed in Arabic during the 7th/13th century by the Persian scholar Abū Yaḥyā Zakarīyāʾ b. Moḥammad Qazvīnī. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 8, pp. 909-911 ĀṮĀR AL- BELĀD, the title of a geographical work composed in Arabic during the 7th/13th century by the Persian scholar Abū Yaḥyā Zakarīyāʾ b. Moḥammad Qazvīnī (ca. 600-82/1203-83, q.v.). Qazvīnī’s fame rests on two major works of his, both written in Arabic (in fact, a rather indifferent Arabic, indicating that …

Ghaznavid vizier of the middle years of the 5th/11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 157-158 ʿABD-AL -RAZZĀQ ABU’L-FATḤ B. AḤMAD B. ḤASAN MAYMANDĪ, Ghaznavid vizier of the middle years of the 5th/11th century. He was the son of the famous minister of sultans Maḥmūd and Masʿūd I, Šams-al-kofāt Aḥmad b. Ḥasan Maymandī (d. 424/1032). The Maymandī family served the Ghaznavids for at least three generations, since a nephew of ʿAbd-al-Razzāq, Abū Naṣr (or Abu’l-Moʾayyed) Manṣūr b. Saʿīd b. Aḥmad b. Ḥasan, was ʿāreż or war minister under sult…

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…

Turkish slave commander of the Ghaznavid sultans and governor in Ḵᵛārazm (408-23/1017-32). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 914-915 ALTUNTAŠ (ĀLTŪNTAŠ) ḤĀJEB, ABŪ SAʿĪD, Turkish slave commander of the Ghaznavid sultans and governor in Ḵᵛārazm (408-23/1017-32). He began his career under Sebüktigin, founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, and under his son Maḥmūd was a leading general. He commanded the right wing of the forces in the battle near Balk in 398/1008 between Maḥmūd and the invading Qarakhanids under the ilig Naṣr b. ʿAlī. In 401/1010-11…

also known under her married surname of Bishop (1831-1904), British traveler in western Iran and Kurdistan during the late Victorian period. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 264-265 BIRD, ISABELLA L., also known under her married surname of Bishop (1831-1904), British traveler in western Iran and Kurdistan during the late Victorian period. Coming from a line of Warwickshire gentry with strong links with the East India Company and the Anglican Church, Isabella inherited a firm Evangelical C…

the name of a family of spiritual and civic leaders in Bokhara during the 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 753-754 ĀL-E BORHĀN, the name of a family of spiritual and civic leaders in Bokhara during the 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries; stemming from Marv, they were so called because virtually all of them seem to have had the laqab (honorific) of Borhān-al-Dīn or Borhān-al-Mella wa’l-dīn. The Islamic religious institution in the cities of Turkestan seems to have enjoyed a position of specia…

nesba (attributive name) for Dargazīn (or Darjazīn), borne by several viziers of the Great Saljuqs in the 12th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 1, pp. 33-34 DARGAZĪNĪ, nesba (attributive name) for Dargazīn (or Darjazīn), borne by several viziers of the Great Saljuqs in the 12th century. The most distinguished was Abu’l-Qāsem Nāṣer b. ʿAlī, Qewām-al-Dīn Zayn-al-Molk ʿEmād-al-Dawla; he and his relative and successor ʿEmād-al-Dīn Abu’l-Barakāt, at least, also bore the additional nesba Anasābāḏī (after Anasābāḏ, a village in the dis…

early 10th-century military leader during the period of Samanid expansion. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 747-748 ASFĀR B. ŠĪRŪYA (Asfār is a local Caspian form of Mid. Pers. aswār, NPers. savār “rider, cavalryman;” Justi, Namenbuch, p. 46), a military leader from Lāhīǰān in Gīlān. In the early decades of the 4th/10th century, after the breakdown of caliphal control in northwestern Persia, he carved out a momentary share of power in Ṭabarestān, Daylam, and the regions along the southern rim of …

lit. “keeper, bearer of [the royal] inkwell or inkstand”; title of various officials in medieval Islamic states. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 2, pp. 136 DAWĀ(T)DĀR (lit., “keeper, bearer of [the royal] inkwell or inkstand”), title of various officials in medieval Islamic states. At an early stage in the development of the vizierate under the ʿAbbasid caliphs the vizier bore an inkstand ( dawāt) as emblem of his office; it was usually suspended from the wrist on a chain and carried in a sleeve or, in a slimmer version ( dawāt laṭīfa), in his boot (Helāl…

Ghaznavid sultan, r. 441-44/1050-53. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 149-150 ʿABD-AL -RAŠĪD, ABŪ MANṢŪR ʿEZZ-AL-DAWLA B. MAḤMŪD B. SEBÜKTIGĪN, Ghaznavid sultan, r. 441-44/1050-53. He succeeded to the amirate after the death of Mawdūd b. Masʿūd in Raǰab, 441/December, 1049 and the brief reigns of the child Masʿūd b. Mawdūd and of Bahāʾ-al-dawla ʿAlī b. Masʿūd. The actual date of ʿAbd-al-Rašīd’s accession is given by Ebn Bābā Qāšānī in his Ketāb raʾs māl al-nadīm (Istanbul MS Turhan Valide 234, fol. 208b.) as 27 Šaʿbān 441/24 January 1…

a region of central Afghanistan, essentially the modern administrative province (welāyat) of Ḡōrāt. A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 4, pp. 399-400 ḠUR, a region of central Afghanistan, essentially the modern administrative province ( welāyat) of Ḡōrāt. Pre-modern Ḡur comprised the basins of the upper Harirud, the Farahrud, the Rud-e Ḡōr, and the Ḵašrud, together with the intervening mountain chains. The moun-tains rise to over 10,000 feet, increasing as they merge in the east into the Hindu Kush and Pa…

b. Būya b. Fanā-Ḵosrow, the eldest of three brothers who came to power in western Persia during the tenth century as military adventurers and founded the Buyid dynasty. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 376-377 EMĀD-AL-DAWLA, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ b. Būya b. Fanā-Ḵosrow, the eldest of three brothers who came to power in western Persia as military adventurers and founded the Buyid dynasty (q.v.). ʿAlī ruled in Jebāl from 320/932 and in Fārs from 322/934 as head of the family. Their rise to power forms part …

(d. 250/864), early member of the Samanid family and governor of Farḡāna under the ʿAbbasids and Taherids. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 639 AḤMAD B. ASAD B. SĀMĀN ḴODĀ (d. 250/864), early member of the Samanid family and governor of Farḡāna under the ʿAbbasids and Taherids. Ca. 204/819-20 Aḥmad and his three brothers (Nūḥ, Yaḥyā, and Elyās) were made subordinate governors of various cities of the east by Ḡassān b. ʿAbbād, the caliph Maʾmūn’s governor of Khorasan, as a reward for their…

town in in the medieval Islamic province of Farḡāna, modern Russian Andizhan, in the easternmost part of the in the easternmost part of Uzbekistan. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 24-25 ANDEJĀN, town in the medieval Islamic province of Farḡāna, modern Russian Andizhan, in the easternmost part of the Uzbekistan SSR (latitude 40° 43’ north and longitude 72° 25’ east). It lies in the fertile valley of Farḡāna, below the upper reaches of the Jaxartes (Syr Darya). It was apparently of little impo…

(Ar. Janza), the Islamic name of a town in the early medieval Islamic province of Arrān (the classical Caucasian Albania, Armenian Alvankʿ). A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 3, pp. 282-283 GANJA (Ar. Janza), the Islamic name of a town in the early medieval Islamic province of Arrān (the classical Caucasian Albania, Armenian Alvankʿ; see ARRĀN). In imperial Russian times, the town was called Elisavetpol after 1813; in Soviet times, when it came within the Azerbaijan SSR, it was first called Gandzha …

b. Fażl, a client (mawlā) and governor of Sīstān 815-19. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 43 EBN MORSAL, LAYṮ b. Fażl, a client ( mawlā) and governor of Sīstān 199-204/815-19. Previously governor of Egypt in 182-87/798-803 (Kendī, pp. 139-41), he was appointed governor of Sīstān by the caliph Maʾmūn in place of the discredited Moḥammad b. Ašʿaṯ. Facing stiff opposition from the outgoing governor and a local ʿayyār leader, he took up his post by making an alliance with the Kharijite leader Ḥamza b. Āḏarak. Once in contol in Zar…

(1854-1933), scholar in Persian, Arabic, and Spanish, specially notable for his work in the field of the historical geography of the pre-modern Middle Eastern and Eastern Islamic lands and his editing of Persian geographical texts. Le Strange’s chef d’ɶuvre is, however, undoubtedly The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate(1905). LE STRANGE, GUY (b. Hunstanton, Norfolk, 24 July 1854; d. Cambridge, 24 December 1933), scholar in Persian, Arabic, and Spanish, specially notable for his work in the field of the historical geography of the pre-modern Middl…

(“The correct usages of war and bravery”), a treatise in a straightforward Persian prose style in the “Mirror for Princes” genre, written by Faḵr-al-dīn Moḥammad b. Manṣūr Mobārakšāh, called Faḵr-e Modabber. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 445 ĀDĀB AL-ḤARB WA’L-ŠAJĀʿA (“The correct usages of war and bravery”), a treatise in a straightforward Persian prose style in the “Mirror for Princes” genre, written by Faḵr-al-dīn Moḥammad b. Manṣūr Mobārakšāh, called Faḵr-e Modabber. He flourished in the late 6th…

[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…

(Nehāvand), a town in western Iran, situated in the northern Zagros region. NEHĀVAND, a town in western Iran, situated in the northern Zagros region (lat 34˚11′ N, long 48˚22′ E, elev. 1,786 m/5,860 ft.). It lies some 90 km/50 miles south of Hamadan, from which it is separated by the massif of the Alvand Kuh, which rises to 3,572 m/11,716 feet, and from which streams provide Nehāvand and its agricultural hinterland with a plentiful water supply. Since Nehāvand lies on an historic route from central Iraq through Kermanshah (q.v.) to northern Iran, it has often been trave…

b. Vošmgīr, ẒAHĪR-AL-DAWLA, Ziyarid amir in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān (r. 967-78). Much of his reign was spent in fending off Samanid claims to sovereignty over the Caspian provinces. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 305-306 BĪSOTŪN, ẒAHĪR-AL-DAWLA ABŪ MANṢŪR b. Vošmgīr, the Ziyarid amir in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān (r. 357-67/967-78, not 356-66 as in Zambaur, pp. 210-11). The date of his father Vošmgīr’s (q.v.) death in a hunting accident is given by Ebn Meskawayh, Tajāreb II, p. 233, tr., V, p. 247, as 1 Moḥarram 357/7 December 967, and his…

a town on the north bank of the middle course of the Araxes (Aras) river of eastern Transcaucasia, former in Persian territory but now in the Republic of Azerbaijan. ORDUBĀD, a town on the north bank of the middle course of the Araxes (Aras) river of eastern Transcaucasia, former in Persian territory but now in the Republic of Azerbaijan. It is some 94 km north-northwest of Tabriz and lies at an altitude of 948 m. The Turco-Persian name “army town” implies a foundation during the period of the Mongol invasions or the ensuing Il-Khanid one, especially as the Il-Khanids …

(or Bāhalīm), military commanders and governors in northern India under the later Ghaznavid sultans in the late 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 5, pp. 489 BŪ ḤALĪM (or Bāhalīm) ŠAYBĀNĪ, a family of military commanders and governors in northern India under the later Ghaznavid sultans in the late 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries. The nesba Šaybān need only indicate an attempt to acquire an affiliation to the great Arab tribe of Šaybān of Bakr b. Wāʾel. In fact, the family seems to ha…

(d. 809), HĀRUN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-ALLĀH, the fifth caliph of the ʿAbbasid dynasty (r. 786-809), the third son of the caliph al-Mahdi. A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 1, pp. 17-20 HĀRUN AL-RAŠID, HĀRUN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-ALLĀH (d. Ṭus, 3 Jomādā II 193/24 March 809), the fifth caliph of the ʿAbbasid dynasty (r. 170-93/786-809), the third son of the caliph al-Mahdi and second son borne him by the slave concubine Ḵayzorān. He was born in Ray, either on 26 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 145/17 March 763 or 1 Moḥarram 1…

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…

Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 6, pp. 615-616 ČAḠĀNRŪD (Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya, rising in what in medieval Islamic times were known as the Bottamān mountains and flowing southwards through the principality of Čaḡānīān into the Oxus just above the important crossing-point of Termeḏ (modern Termez). Hence it flows from what is now the Gi…

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…