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“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 …

(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 …

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 …

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,…

This series of articles covers Central Asia. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 2, pp. 159 CENTRAL ASIA (See also Archeology v, vii; Architecture iv; Art in Iran vi, viii.) CENTRAL ASIA i. Geographical Survey The central expanse of the Asian continent, the land mass situated approximately between 55° and 115° E and 25° and 50° N, comprises two geographically distinct areas. The western part includes the Transcaspian plains and the low tablelands between the Aral Sea and the Tien Shan (lit. “heavenly moun…

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…

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 …

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…

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 …