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the official in medieval eastern Islamic states who had charge of the administrative side of the military forces, being especially concerned with payment, recruitment, training, and inspection. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 393-394 ʿĀREŻ (Arabic ʿĀriḍ, from the verb ʿ araḍa, also iʿtaraḍa, istaʿraḍa, “to lay open to view,” i.e., for inspection), the official in medieval eastern Islamic states who had charge of the administrative side of the military forces, being especially concerned with payment, recr…

author of an extremely important travel narrative written after he had been a member of an embassy in the early 4th/10th century from the ʿAbbasid caliphate to the ruler of the Bulghars on the middle Volga in Russia. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 640 AḤMAD B. FAŻLĀN B. AL-ʿABBĀS B. RAŠĪD, author of an extremely important travel narrative written after he had been a member of an embassy in the early 4th/10th century from the ʿAbbasid caliphate to the ruler of the Bulghars on the middle Volga in Russia. Noth…

(786-833), Abu’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd-Allāh, the seventh Abbasid caliph (r. 813-833), son of Hārun-al-Rašid (d. 809) by a Persian concubine. MAʾMUN, Abu’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd-Allāh (b. 786; d. near Tarsus in July-August 833), the seventh Abbasid caliph (r. 813-33; see ʿABBASID CALIPHATE), the son of Hārun-al-Rašid (d. 809) by a Persian concubine, named Marājel. He spent the earlier part of his reign in Khorasan, and only moved to Baghdad in 819. Between 791 and 792, Hārun had named as his heir his son Moḥammad Abu Musā (r. as Amin 809-13), who was slightly younger than Maʾmun b…

Turkish military slave commander of the Samanids and founder of Turkish power in eastern Afghanistan (d. 352/963). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 898 ALPTIGIN (Tk., “hero prince”), Turkish military slave commander of the Samanids and founder of Turkish power in eastern Afghanistan (d. 352/963). Apparently brought as a slave from the Central Asian steppes, Alptigin rose in the hierarchy of the Samanid army until he became head of the royal guard (ḥāǰeb al-ḥoǰǰāb) under Amir Nūḥ b. Naṣr (331-43/943-54). Under the latter’s successor ʿA…

a rural area ( rostāq) of medieval Khorasan, between the district of Nīšāpūr and the eastern borders of Qūmes, and its town, also known as Sabzavār. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 888-889 BAYHAQ, a town of Khorasan in the Islamic period, also known as Sabzavār. Bayhaq is properly the name of a rural area ( rostāq) lying between the district of Nīšāpūr (Neyšābūr) and the eastern borders of Qūmes, of which Sabzavār and Ḵosrowjerd, separated by two farsaḵs only, were the main urban centers. The early geographers are sparing in their descr…

b. ʿAlī, twice vizier to the Saljuq sultan Barkīāroq (1094-1105). A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 2, pp. 216 DEHESTĀNĪ , AʿAZZ-AL-MOLKNEẒĀM-AL-DĪN ABU’L-MAḤĀSEN ʿABD-AL-JALĪL b. ʿAlī, twice vizier to the Saljuq sultan Barkīāroq (487-98/1094-1105). In Rabīʿ I 493/January-February 1100, after Barkīāroq succeeded in taking control of Baghdad, he appointed Dehestānī vizier with the honorific Neẓām-al-Dīn. Slightly later, however, Barkīāroq was defeated at Espīḏrūḏ near Hamadān by his brother Moḥammad b…

governor of Ḡazna in eastern Afghanistan on behalf of the Samanids (352/963-355/966). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 272-273 ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM B. ALPTIGIN (named in some sources, e.g., Ebn Bābā, as Esḥāq b. Alptigin), governor of Ḡazna in eastern Afghanistan on behalf of the Samanids, Šaʿbān, 352 to Ḏu’l-qaʿda, 355/September, 963 to November, 966. Abū Esḥāq Ebrāhīm’s father Alptigin had been commander-in-chief of the Samanid army in Bokhara; compelled in 350/961 to withdraw from th…

a title of high-born women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds. A version of this article is available in print Volume XVI, Fascicle 2, pp. 129-130 ḴĀTUN, a title of high-born women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds. Although the title is first attested in Orkhon Turkish, where qatun/ ḵatun in the Kül-tegin and Bilge-qaghan inscriptions denotes “wife of the khan or ruler, queen” (Tekin, pp. 342-43; Kāšḡari, tr. Atalay I, p. 410; tr. Dankoff and Kelly I, p. 311), the word is almost certainly of Sogdian origin ( xwtʾy “lord, ruler,” xwt’yn “lord’s wife”; Clauson, p. 602…

conventional name for an otherwise unknown author of Fārs-nāma, a local history and geography of the province of Fārs written in Persian during the Saljuq period. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 4 EBN AL-BALḴĪ, conventional name for an otherwise unknown author of Fārs-nāma, a local history and geography of the province of Fārs written in Persian during the Saljuq period, so-called because his ancestors came from Balḵ in eastern Khorasan ( Balḵī-nežād, p. 3; the form “Ebn al-Balḵī” is used in Kašf al-ẓonūn, ed. Flügel, IV, p. 344, no. 8681).…

a small upland town of the ostān of Fārs. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 370 ARDAKĀN-E FĀRS, a small upland town of the ostān of Fārs (hence to be distinguished from the Ardakān-e Yazd), lying in 30° 16’ north latitude and 51° 59’ east longitude and situated at an altitude of 7,257 ft/2,212 m. It is thus within the southern Zagros region, one of high valleys and steep mountain ranges, connected now by a road to the provincial capital Shiraz, 60 miles/96 km to the southeast. To the no…

b. ʿOmar (d. after 903), Persian author of a geographical compendium. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 49-50 EBN ROSTA, ABŪ ʿALĪ AḤMAD b.ʿOmar (d. after 290/903), Persian author of a geographical compendium. He was from Isfahan, where the name Rosta is attested in this period (Ebn Rosta, I, p. 151; Abū Noʿaym Eṣfahānī, pp. 162, 316), and it was probably there that the book was written. He himself mentions in his book that he had been in Medina—apparently his only significant journe…

author of a general history in Persian valuable as a first-hand source for the history of the Ghurids, the Šamsi Delhi Sultans, and the irruption of the Mongols into the eastern Islamic lands. MENHĀJ-e SERĀJ, Menhāj-al-Din Abu ʿAmr ʿOṯmān b. Serāj-al-Din Moḥammad Jowzjāni, qāżi, author of a general history in Persian valuable as a first-hand source for the history of the Ghurids, the Šamsi Delhi Sultans, and the irruption of the Mongols into the eastern Islamic lands (see Ṭabaqāt-e Nāṣeri). Everything known about him and his career stems from mentions in his own history. He…

Their rise is connected with the growth of the commercial center of Gorgānǰ in northwest Ḵᵛārazm and its rivalry with the capital of the Afrighids, Kāt or Kāṯ, on the right bank of the Oxus. Gorgānǰ flourished especially because of its position as the terminus for caravan trade across the Ust Urt desert to the Emba. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 762-764 ĀL-E MAʾMŪN (or Maʾmunids), a short-lived dynasty of independent Iranian rulers in Ḵᵛārazm, 385-408/995-1017; they replaced the ancient line of Afrighid Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, but we…

the penultimate ruler of the Samanid dynasty in Khorasan and Transoxania, r. 389/999. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 127-128 ʿABD-AL -MALEK B. NŪḤ B. MANṢŪR, ABU’L-FAVĀRES, the penultimate ruler of the Samanid dynasty in Khorasan and Transoxania, r. 389/999. In the decade of the 380s/990s, the Samanid amirate was being subverted internally by the rivalries of ambitious Turkish military commanders and was attacked externally after 382/992 by the Qarakhanid Turkish ruler from beyond th…

the holder of an administrative office in the pre-modern Islamic world. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 930-931 ʿĀMEL, the holder of an administrative office in the pre-modern Islamic world. In earliest Islam, the Arabic term ʿāmel was one which denoted, at its most general, a provincial governor; hence it was correlative with such designations as amīr and walī. The basic sense of “agent, person involved in some activity” is clearly discernible here, and this general sense persisted in administrative usage well into ʿAbbasid times. But ʿāmel also…

vizier of the last two Great Saljuq sultans in western Persia. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 217 ABHARĪ, ḴᵛĀJA KAMĀL-AL -DĪN ABŪ ʿAmr, vizier of the last two Great Saljuq sultans in western Persia, Arslan b. Ṭoḡ rı l II (556-71/1161-76) and his son Ṭoḡrıl III (579-90/1176-94). After a secretarial career, he first became minister to Arslan. When Ṭoḡrıl III became restive under the tutelage of the Eldiguzid atabegs of Azerbaijan and endeavored to escape from them, he ended up by bei…

known as Kolah (said to be an opprobrious term), secretary and official in northern Persia and Transoxania during the 4th/10th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 937 ʿAMĪD, ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH AL-ḤOSAYN B. MOḤAMMAD, known as Kolah (said to be an opprobrious term), secretary and official in northern Persia and Transoxania during the 4th/10th century, and father of Abu’l-Fażl Moḥammad b. ʿAmīd, the celebrated vizier of the Buyid amir Rokn-al-dawla. He was allegedly of lowly birth, originally a hawker in the wheat-merchants’ market in Qom, or a ḥammā…

B. ʿABD-ALLAH SAḤEBI KIRANI, author of a Persian history Tajāreb al-salaf (fl. first half of the 8th/14th century). A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 2, pp. 181-182 HENDUŠĀH B. SANJAR B. ʿABD-ALLAH SAḤEBI KIRANI, the little-known author of a Persian history called the Tajāreb al-salaf (fl. first half of the 8th/14th century). Virtually nothing is known of his life or when he was born and died. Browne (1924, p. 246 n. 1) thought that the nesba Ṣāḥebi meant that he was in the entourage of some leading political figure of the time and that Kir…

[KAKWAYHIDS], a dynasty of Deylamite origin that ruled in western Persia, Jebāl, and Kurdistan about 1008-51 as independent princes. A version of this article is available in print Volume XV, Fascicle 4, pp. 359-362 KĀKUYIDS (KAKWAYHIDS), a dynasty of Deylamite origin that ruled in western Persia, in Jebāl and Kurdistan about 1008-51 as independent princes, and thereafter locally as feudatories of the Great Saljuqs until the mid-12th century. They represent one of the hitherto submerged local powers of this region, Deylamite and…

Arabic-Persian term used to denote proclamations and letters announcing victories in battle or the successful conclusion of military campaigns. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 4, pp. 422-423 FATḤ-NĀMA, Arabic-Persian term used to denote proclamations and letters announcing victories in battle or the successful conclusion of military campaigns. They might be composed on the actual battle field by one of the ruler’s secretaries or put together later in the ruler’s chancery. These last tended to …