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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…