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(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…

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…

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(“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 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 the marvels of the heavens and the celestial bodies. The Muslims were stimulated in this interest on the one hand by the classical heritage, and especially the Greek one, with the searching questions about n…

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 own death at Astarābād by Gardīzī, ed. Nazim, p. 46, as falling in Rajab, 367/February-March, 978 (but according to Ebn al-Aṯīr in 366/976-77). Bīsotūn…

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 (Hirsch, p. 105). When the boy became

(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 …

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…

(Afrighid dynasty), the name given by the Khwarazmian scholar Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī to the dynasty of rulers in his country, with the ancient title of Ḵᵛārazmšāh. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 743-745 ĀL-E AFRĪḠ (Afrighid dynasty), the name given by the Khwarazmian scholar Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī to the dynasty of rulers in his country, with the ancient title of Ḵᵛārazmšāh. According to him, the Afrighids ruled from 305 A.D. (year 616 of the Seleucid era), through the Arab conquests under Qotayba b. Mos…

(“Manual for secretaries”), a work composed by the celebrated Baghdad scholar probably of Khorasanian mawlā origin, Ebn Qotayba (213-76/828-89). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 446 ADAB AL-KĀTEB (“Manual for secretaries”), a work composed by the celebrated Baghdad scholar probably of Khorasanian mawlā origin, Ebn Qotayba (213-76/828-89). It was written during the caliphate of Motawakkel (r. 232-47/847-61) and dedicated to his vizier, Fatḥ b. Ḵāqān. Although its title makes one think of the great line of…

a town of the medieval Islamic region of Arrān, the classical Caucasian Albania, lying in the triangle between the Kor and Aras (Araxes) rivers. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 2 BAYLAQĀN, Armenian form Pʿaytakaran (cf. Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge, Leipzig, 1903, p. 457), a town of the medieval Islamic region ofArrān, the classical Caucasian Albania, lying in the triangle between the Kor and Aras (Araxes) rivers, in what is today the Mīl steppe in Soviet Azerbaijan. In Islam…

Turkish commander and rebel under the early Ghaznavid sultan Masʿūd I (421-32/1030-41), d. 426/1035. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 647 AḤMAD INALTIGIN (in the sources, usually spelt Yenāltegīn or, erroneously, Nīaltegīn), Turkish commander and rebel under the early Ghaznavid sultan Masʿūd I (421-32/1030-41), d. 426/1035. Aḥmad had been treasurer under Maḥmūd and in favor with him. When Masʿūd succeeded Maḥmūd in 421/1030, he made a clean sweep of the adherents of the old regime (Maḥmūdīān), and Aḥmad was compelled to disgorge the monies which he had amassed. Although he had no particular military experience, he was then (422/1031) appointed commander-in-chief of the Ghaznavid troops in India in place of the fallen general Eryāroq, with instructions to collect the stipulated tribute from the Hindu princes. Instead, impelled according to Gardīzī by the rough …

a distinguished family of officials, littérateurs, ʿ olamāʾ, and traditionists from Bayhaq (modern Sabzavār). A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 6-7 ʿANBARĪĀN, a distinguished family of officials, littérateurs, ʿ olamāʾ, and traditionists from Bayhaq (modern Sabzavār). Their activities in public and scholarly life from the 4th/10th to the 6th/12th centuries are known above all through Ebn Fondoq’s Tārīḵ-e Bayhaq (ed. A. Bahmanyār, Tehran, 1317 Š./1938, pp. 119-22, 182-83). The family was probably Iranian in origin, but, according …

these centers played important diplomatic and administrative roles in Iranian history, closely linked to the fortunes of the ruling families. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 7, pp. 768-774 i. In Pre-Islamic Times Iranians most probably first coalesced into an organized community in the Jaxartes and Oxus basins (see most recently Francfort, pp. 165ff.) and gradually migrated westward, eventually reaching as …

B. ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD BALʿAMĪ TAMĪMĪ, vizier to the Samanid amir Naṣr b. Aḥmad (r. 913-42), father of the vizier and historian Amirak Baḷʿamī. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 573-574 BALʿAMĪ, ABU’L- FAŻL MOḤAMMAD B. ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD BALʿAMĪ TAMĪMĪ, vizier …

or ERZENJĀN, a town of northeastern Anatolia. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 690-691 ARZENJĀN or ERZENJĀN (Greek Erzingan, Armenian Erēz, Erznga(n), in modern Turkish orthography Erzincan), a town of northeastern Anatolia in 39° 45’ north latitude …

Ghaznavid prince and briefly amir in Ḡazna in 997-98. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 6, pp. 627 ESMĀʿĪL B. SEBOKTEGĪN, Ghaznavid prince and briefly amir in Ḡazna in 387-88/997-98. Esmāʿīl was one of Seboktegīn’s younger sons by a daughter of his old master Alptegīn. Seboktegīn had appointed him as his successor in Ḡazna and Balḵ, so that on his death in Šaʿbān 387/August 997, Esmāʿīl was able immediately to assume power there as the vassal of the Samanid amir, Manṣūr b. Nūḥ, and of the then deposed ʿAbbasid caliph, al-Ṭāʾeʿ. It is difficult to discern Seboktegīn’s motives for settling the succession on Esmāʿīl in preference to his elder son Maḥmūd, the commander of the Samanid forces in Khorasan; the reason adduced by C. E. Bosworth (1962) no longer seems tenable. At all events, the forceful and more experienced Maḥmūd refused to accept the situation. He demanded recognition as supreme overlord in the Ghaznavid dominions, enlisted the help of his brother Abu’l-Moẓaffar Naṣr, governor of Bost, and of his uncle Boḡrāčoq of Herat, and marched on Ḡazna, defeating Esmāʿīl outside the town in Rabīʿ I 388/March, 998. Esmāʿīl’s short reign of seven months thus ended, and he spent the last years of his life in captivity in Gūzgān under the tutelage of the vassal line of Āl-e Farīḡūn (q.v.). He is said to have been a man of culture and to have been literate in Ar…

a name frequently applied in medieval Islam to beggars, rogues, charlatans, and tricksters of all kinds, allegedly so called because they stemmed from a legendary Shaikh Sāsān. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 721-722 BANŪ SĀSĀN, a name frequently applied in medieval Islam to beggars, rogues, charlatans, and tricksters of all kinds, allegedly so called because they stemmed from a legendary Shaikh Sāsān. A story frequently found in the sources, from Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ onward, states that Sāsān was t…

castrated males who were in charge of the concubines of royal harems, served in the daily life of the court, and sometimes carried out administrative functions. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 1, pp. 64-69 i. THE ACHAEMENID PERIOD According to Herodotus (8.105), the Persians, like other Oriental peoples, valued eunuchs highly for their trustworthiness. Ctesias and Xenophon date the appearance of eunuchs in Persia to the time of Cyrus the Great. It is possible that the Persians adopted the practice of castration from the Babylonians or Assyrians (Cook, p. 136; cf. also Meier, pp. …