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or Naṣr or Ḥosayn; commander of ʿayyārs or moṭawweʿa, orthodox Sunni vigilantes against the Kharijites in Sīstān during the period immediately preceding the rise of the Saffarid brothers to supreme power there. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 3, pp. 320 DERHAM B. NAŻR (or Naṣr or Ḥosayn), commander of ʿayyārs or moṭawweʿa, orthodox Sunni vigilantes against the Kharijites in Sīstān during the period immediately preceding the rise of the Saffarid brothers to supreme power there. Derham was chosen by the Sunni forces in the field to succeed the ʿayyār lea…

(occasionally vocalized Daynavar), in the first centuries of Islam an important town in Jebāl, now ruined. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 4, pp. 416-417 DĪNAVAR (occasionally vocalized Daynavar), in the first centuries of Islam an important town in Jebāl, now ruined. Its site lies northeast of modern Kermānšāh, at 34° 35’ N, 47° 26’ E, on an upland plain (elev. 1,600 m) traversed by what the medieval traveler Abū Dolaf called the river of Dīnavar (p. 49, comm. pp. 93, 97). Dīnavar was an important fortified point of the Sasanian empire, to whic…

a town of medieval Islamic Fārs (modern Tall-e Bayżā), 25 miles north of Shiraz, 8 farsaḵs according to the medieval geographers and one stage east of the Sasanian and early Islamic town of Eṣṭaḵr. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 14-15 BAYŻĀ, a town of medieval Islamic Fārs, the modern village of Tall-e Bayżā. The name stems from Arabic bayżā “white,” the name of several places in the medieval Islamic world (Yāqūt, Moʿjam al-boldān, Beirut, I, pp. 529-31, names no fewer than 16) from Sind and Iran to Sicily and the Maghrib, a noun l…

ABU’L-ḤASAN or ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. JĀBER, leading Arab historian of the 9th century, whose Ketāb fotūḥ al-boldān, in particular, contains much original information on the Arab conquests of Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 570-571 BALĀḎORĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN or ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. JĀBER, leading Arab historian of the 3rd/9th century, whose Ketāb fotūḥ al-boldān, in particular, contains much original and indispensable information on the Arab conquests of Iran. Life. The exact details of Balāḏorī’s life are shadowy, but he…

a town of the medieval Islamic province of Ahvāz (Ḵūzestān) and also the name of the district of which it was the administrative center. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 768 ʿASKAR MOKRAM (lit. Mokram’s encampment), a town of the medieval Islamic province of Ahvāz (Ḵūzestān) and also the name of the district of which it was the administrative center. The Arabic sources give various tales concerning the origin of the name. According to Balāḏorī, Fotūḥ p. 383, it was named after Moḥammad b. Moṭarref (al-Bāhelī?), a commander of Moṣʿab b.…

the last Ḵᵛārazmšāh of the line of Anuštigin Ḡarčaʾi, reigned in 1220-31 as the eldest son and successor of ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Moḥammad. A version of this article is available in print Volume XIV, Fascicle 4, pp. 404-405 JALĀL-AL-DIN ḴᵛĀRAZMŠĀH (I) MENGÜBIRNI, the last Ḵᵛārazmšāh of the line of Anuštigin Ḡarčaʾi, reigned in 1220-31 as the eldest son and successor of ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Moḥammad. His Turkish personal name remains enigmatic, as no more satisfactory interpretation of the Arabic consonant ductus MNKBRNY has been seriously suggested than mengü birti (‘the Heavens [i.e., God] gav…

(849-907), the first member of the Samanid dynasty to rule over all Transoxania and Farḡāna. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 6, pp. 636-637 ESMĀʿĪL, b. Aḥmad b. Asad SĀMĀNĪ, ABŪ EBRĀHĪM (b. 234/849, d. Ṣafar 295/November 907), the first member of the Samanid dynasty to rule over all Transoxania and Farḡāna. He served almost two decades (260-79/874-92) as governor of Bukhara (q.v. ii) on behalf of his brother Naṣr, ʿAbbasid governor of Transoxania, who resided at Samarqand. In Khorasan and Trans…

B. MOḤAMMAD, 10th-century Arabic littérateur, author of a work of adab. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 895 BAYHAQĪ, EBRĀHĪM B. MOḤAMMAD, Arabic littérateur, known solely through his one book, the Ketāb al-maḥāsen wa’l-masāwī. Nothing is known of him except for what can be gleaned from this, though his forebears presumably had some connection with Bayhaq in Khorasan; he apparently wrote in the caliphate of al-Moqtader (295-320/909-12), and Brockelmann surmised that he may have belonged to the circle of Ebn al-Moʿtazz (d. 296/908; GAL, S. I, …

early 13th century military commander of the Ghurids, and connected, according to Jūzjānī, with the district of Gorzevān on the headwaters of the Morḡāb in the province of Gūzgān in northern Afghanistan. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 37 EBN ḴARMĪL, military commander of the Ghurids, and connected, according to Jūzjānī, with the district of Gorzevān on the headwaters of the Morḡāb in the province of Gūzgān in northern Afghanistan. He is first heard of as a prominent commander of the Ghurid raids into India. He was made governo…

a small settlement on the north bank of the Harirud and to the south of the Paropamisus range in northwestern Afghanistan, lying approximately 100 miles upstream from Herat in the easternmost part of the modern Herat welāyat or province. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 3, pp. 333 CEŠT, a small settlement on the north bank of the Harirud and to the south of the Paropamisus range in northwestern Afghanistan, lying approximately 100 miles upstream from Herat in the easternmost part of the modern Herat welāyat or province. The present form of its name is…

or Yenāl (d. 1059), early Saljuq leader. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 66 EBRĀHĪM ĪNĀL (or Yenāl; d. 451/1059), early Saljuq leader. The name Īnāl/Yenāl comes originally from an old Turkish title already attested in the early 4th/10th century by the traveler Aḥmad b. Fażlān, confirmed by Moḥammad Ḵᵛārazmī’s mention (p. 120) of yenāl-tigin as a title of the Oḡuz (Bosworth and Clauson, pp. 6, 10-11; Doerfer, Elemente IV, pp. 196-99). Ebrāhīm Īnāl is described as a uterine half-brother of Ṭoḡrel and Čaḡrī Beg, but his father m…

wife of the Atābeg Jahān-Pahlavān Moḥammad (r. 1175-86), the Eldigüzid (or Ildegizid) ruler in Arrān, most of Azerbaijan, and then Jebāl. A version of this article is available in print Volume XIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 3 ÏNĀNČ ḴĀTUN (Inānj Ḵātun), wife of the Atābeg Noṣrat-al-Din Jahān-Pahlavān Moḥammad b. Šams-al-Din Eldigüz (r. 571-82/1175-86), the Eldigüzid or Ildegizid ruler in Arrān, most of Azerbaijan, and then Jebāl. She was the daughter of the powerful Turkish governor of Ray, nominally for the later Saljuqs, Ḥosām-al-Din Ïnānč…

eldest son of the Kakuyid amir of Jebāl, ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla Moḥammad b. Došmanzīār. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 335-336 ABŪ MANṢŪR FARĀMARZ, ẒAHĪR-AL-DĪN ŠAMS-AL-MOLK, eldest son of the Kakuyid amir of Jebāl, ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla Moḥammad b. Došmanzīār. He reigned in Isfahan, 433-43/1041-51, and died at some unknown date after 455/1063. He may thus be considered as the second independent ruler of the Kakuyid dynasty, whose original fortunes had been made as commanders under the Buyids and…

(511-34/1117-40), ruler of the Espahbadīya line of the local dynasty of the Bavandids in the Caspian region of Māzandarān. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 772 ʿALĀʾ-AL- DAWLA ʿALĪ B. ḤOSĀM-AL-DAWLA ŠAHRĪĀR B. QĀREN (511-34/1117-40), ruler of the Espahbadīya line of the local dynasty of the Bavandids (see Āl-e Bāvand) in the Caspian region of Māzandarān. Under his rule, the dynasty achieved an importance transcending the local Caspian scene, for at various times the weakness of the Great Sa…

name of several towns in medieval sources, including the modern city. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 697-698 ASADĀBĀD (Asadābāḏ and Asadāvād in medieval Islamic sources). 1. A town in the medieval Islamic province of Jebāl, now in the ostān of Kermānšāhān (Bāḵtarān) of modern Iran. It is situated at an altitude of 5,575 ft/1,699 m, some 33.5 miles/54 km west-southwest of Hamadān on the historic Baghdad-Hamadān-Ray or Tehran highway, separated from Hamadān itself by a pass over the intervening Kūh-e…

a town in the medieval Islamic province of Mūḡān, the area southwest of the Caspian Sea and south of the Kor (Kura) and Aras (Araxes) rivers. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 5, pp. 533 BĀJARVĀN, a town in the medieval Islamic province of Mūḡān (q.v.), i.e., the area southwest of the Caspian Sea and south of the Kor (Kura) and Aras (Araxes; qq.v.) rivers. Its site is unknown, but it must have lain in what is now the extreme northeastern tip of the modern Iranian province of Azerbaijan, to the south o…

or Dawraq al-Fors; name of a district (kūra), also known as Sorraq, and of a town that was sometimes its chef-lieu in medieval Islamic times. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 2, pp. 159 DAWRAQ (or Dawraq al-Fors), name of a district ( kūra; Moqaddasī, pp. 406-7), also known as Sorraq, and of a town that was sometimes its chef-lieu in medieval Islamic times. The town lay 78 km southeast of Ahvāz; its modern successor is Šādagān, situated 30° 40’ N, 48° 40’ E. According to early geographers, Dawraq was a fine and prosperous town, through which pilgri…

There were at least three raids by the early Ghaznavids into Ḡūr, led by Sultan Maḥmūd and his son Masʿūd, in the first decades of the 11th century; these introduced Islam and brought Ḡūr into a state of loose vassalage to the sultans. A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 6, pp. 586-590 GHURIDS (or Āl-e Šansab), a medieval Islamic dynasty of the eastern Iranian lands. They began as local chiefs in Ḡūr (q.v.) in the heartland of what is now Afghanistan, but became a major power from the mid-12th century until the opening ye…

called Naṣir-al-Dawla and Nāṣeḥ "Counselor,” vizier of the Buyids in Iraq, b. 314/926, d. 367/978. EBN BAQIYA,MOḤAMMAD b. MOḤAMMAD b. BAQIYA, ABU ṬĀHER, called Naṣir-al-Dawla and Nāṣeḥ "Counselor,” vizier of the Buyids in Iraq, b. 314/926, d. 367/978. He was born at ʿAwāna to the north of Baghdad of peasant stock; later in his career, detractors would accuse him of promoting base men to high positions. He is first heard of farming the tolls over the Tigris crossings at Takrit, and when the Buyid Moʿezz-al-Dawla Aḥmad b. Buya seized …

(or ANBĪR), a town of the medieval Islamic province of Gūzgān or Jūzǰān in northern Afghanistan, probably to be identified with the modern Sar-e Pol. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 6 ANBĀ R or ANBĪR, a town of the medieval Islamic province of Gūzgān or Jūzǰān in northern Afghanistan, probably to be identified with the modern Sar-e Pol. The variable spelling of the sources (in Yāqūt, I, pp. 257, 259, there are separate entries for each of the two forms) doubtless reflects a contemporary pronun…