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literally “taster” (Pers. čāšnī “taste”), the official who at the court of Turkish dynasties in Iran and elsewhere, from the Saljuq period onwards, had the responsibility of tasting the ruler’s food and drink in order to ensure that it was not poisoned. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 1, pp. 47-48 ČĀŠNĪGĪR, literally “taster” (Pers. čāšnī “taste”), the official who at the court of Turkish dynasties in Iran and elsewhere, from the Saljuq period onwards, had the responsibility of tasting the ruler’s food and drink in order to ensure that it was not poisoned. Un…

sultan of the Ghaznavid dynasty, recorded on his coins with the honorifics Šehāb-al-Din wa’l-Dawla and Qoṭb-al-Mella. MAWDUD B. MASʿUD B. MAḤMUD, ABU’L-FATḤ, sultan of the Ghaznavid dynasty (r. 432-41/1041-49), recorded on his coins with the honorifics Šehāb-al-Din wa’l-Dawla and Qoṭb-al-Mella. Mawdud inherited a Ghaznavid state that had just lost its western lands, namely Ray and the fringes of Jebāl, and Khorasan, to the Saljuqs, but was still a powerful force in the Islamic East, controlling eastern Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and in…

(r. 1172-1200), ʿAlāʾ-al-Donyā wa’l-Din Abu’l-Moẓaffar, a ruler of the branch of Khwarazmshahs who descended from the Great Saljuq slave commander (ḡolām) Anuštigin Ḡarčāʾi. TEKIŠ B. IL ARSLĀN, ʿAlāʾ-al-Donyā wa’l-Din Abu’l-Moẓaffar (r. 1172-1200; for his full name, see Ebn al-Aṯir XI, p. 377; for the meaning of tekiš Turk. “he who strikes in battle,” see Bayur), a ruler of the branch of Khwarazmshahs who descended from the Great Saljuq slave commander (ḡ olām) Anuštigin Ḡarča’i (r. ca. 1077-97) and ruled in Khwarazm (see CHORASMIA). Tekiš was the eldest son of Il Arslān (r. 1…

vizier to two of the last Samanid Amirs of Transoxiana and Khorasan. BARḠAŠI, ABU’L MOẒAFFAR MOḤAMMAD b. EBRAHIM, vizier to two of the last Samanid Amirs of Transoxiana and Khorasan. Neither his birth nor death date is known, nor is the origin of his nesba clear, but it seems that he began what was presumably a secretarial career in the time of Amir Naṣr (II) b. Aḥmad (II) (r. 331-43/943-54). He comes into mention in the closing years of the emirate, being appointed vizier to Amir Nuḥ (II) b. Manṣur (I) (r. 365-87/976-97) in 386/996 when …

a region of eastern Transcaucasia. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 5, pp. 520-522 ARRĀN, a region of eastern Transcaucasia. It lay essentially within the great triangle of land, lowland in the east but rising to mountains in the west, formed by the junction of the Rivers Kur or Kura and Araxes or Aras. It was thus bounded on the north by Šervān; on the north west by Šakkī (Armenian Šakʿe) and Kaxeti in eastern Georgia; on the south by Armenia and Azerbaijan; and on the southeast …

(d. 1149-50), son of the well-known Saljuq vizier (d. 485/1092) and himself vizier for the Great Saljuqs and then for the ʿAbbasid caliphs. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 642-643 AḤMAD B. NEẒĀM-AL- MOLK, ABŪ NAṢR (d. 544/1149-50), son of the well-known Saljuq vizier (d. 485/1092) and himself vizier for the Great Saljuqs and then for the ʿAbbasid caliphs. He was born in Balḵ, his mother being a Georgian princess; she was either daughter or niece of King Bagrat I and formerly married (or at leas…

a district of eastern Transcaucasia, now within the northwesternmost part of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, where the modern town of Sheki or Shaki. ŠAKKI, a district of eastern Transcaucasia, now within the northwesternmost part of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, where the modern town of Sheki or Shaki (lat 41°12′ N, long 47°10′ E) perpetuates its older name; in 2008 the town had a population of 65,000. The usual boundaries of pre-modern Šakki comprised, on the north to northeast, the southern slopes …

(or Bavan), a small town in the medieval Islamic province of Bāḏḡīs, to the north and west of Herat. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 3, pp. 306-307 BABAN (or Bavan), a small town in the medieval Islamic province of Bāḏḡīs, to the north and west of Herat, more particularly, in the district of Ganj Rostāq (q.v.), which formed the eastern part of Bāḏḡīs. It must have been within the Herat welāyat of modern Afghanistan, just south of the border with the Turkmenistan S.S.R. and near the modern Afghan town of Košk. The 4th/10th-century geographers link it with …

b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 382 ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪNMARZBĀN, ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (399-440/1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line. He ruled over Fārs and Ḵūzestān 415-40/1024-48, in Kermān fro…

official of the Buyids and writer in Arabic of the 4th/10th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 3, pp. 324 ABU’L- ḤOSAYN AḤMAD B. SAʿD KĀTEB, official of the Buyids and writer in Arabic of the 4th/10th century. Little is known of him beyond what Yāqūt records in his biographical notice. He apparently came from Fārs; in 323/935 he was appointed head of the finances of the province of Isfahan by the Buyid amir ʿEmād-al-dawla, who had in the previous year taken over Fārs from the governor o…

a town in medieval northern Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 2, pp. 218-219 ABĪVARD, a town in medieval Iran situated in northern Khorasan, in the northern foothills of the Hazār Masǰed range where these mountains slope down in the Qara Qum desert. It is important historically as part of the protective chain of frontier defense posts established by the ancient Iranian kings against the irruption of barbarians from the steppes of Inner Asia. Its site (now called Kohna Abīva…

or GMS; a series of publications, which has continued for almost a century, mainly, but not exclusively, dedicated to editions and translations of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts. A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 6, pp. 601-602 GIBB MEMORIAL SERIES (GMS), a series of publications, which has continued for almost a century, mainly, but not exclusively, dedicated to editions and translations of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts. The Series is financed by the Gibb Memorial Trust, which was originally set up…

(also A/Āstovā; Ostov), a rural district ( rostāq) of northern Khorasan, considered in medieval Islamic times to be an administrative dependency of Nišāpur. OSTOVĀ (also A/Āstovā; Ostov), a rural district ( rostāq) of northern Khorasan, considered in medieval Islamic times to be an administrative dependency of Nišāpur. According to Yāqut ( Boldān, Beirut, I, pp. 175-76), it comprised ninety-three villages. It lay across the road going north from Nišāpur to Nasā on the edge of the steppes. It was in the corridor of Atrak and Kašafrud rivers betwe…

or ANDARĀBA, the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 10 ANDARĀB or ANDARĀBA (Lit.: " between the rivers"), the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan, in what was in mediaeval Islamic times the province of Ṭoḵārestān. The valley lies in 35° 47’ north latitude and 68° 49’ east longitude, and falls within the modern Afghan province (post-1964 administrative reorganization) of Baḡlān. The town …

(now OŠNAVIYA), a small town of southwestern Azerbaijan. It lies near the southwestern corner of Lake Urmia on the Qādar-Čay river; it is some 32 km from the lakeshore and also some 32 km from the meeting-place of the modern frontiers of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq. The medieval geographers reckoned its distance from Tabriz as 16 farsang òs. It lies on a historic route from the Urmia basin over the Kela-Šin Pass to Ravānduz and the plains of northern Iraq. OŠNUYA, OŠNU, OŠNOH (now OŠNAVIYA), a small town of southwestern Azerbaijan. It lies near the southwestern corner of Lake Ur…

governor in Khorasan during the confused struggles for supremacy there between the Saffarids, Samanids, and various military adventures in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th century, d. 307/920. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 643-644 AḤMAD B. SAHL B. HĀŠEM, governor in Khorasan during the confused struggles for supremacy there between the Saffarids, Samanids, and various military adventures in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th century, d. 307/920. Aḥmad sprang from an aristocratic family of Persian dehqāns of the Marv oasis, the Kām…

the first fully independent ruler of the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty, who reigned (388-421/998-1030) over what had become by his death a vast military empire. MAḤMUD B. SEBÜKTEGIN, YAMIN-AL-DAWLA ABU’L-QĀSEM, the first fully independent ruler of the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty (see GHAZNAVIDS), who reigned (388-421/998-1030) over what had become by his death a vast military empire stretching from northwestern Persia to the Punjab in India and from Ḵᵛārazm (Chorasmia) and the middle stretches of the Oxus River to Makrān and the Arabian Sea shores. On the maternal side, he was the e…

governor in Ḵᵛārazm and son of the last Tahirid governor in Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 642 AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ṬĀHER, governor in Ḵᵛārazm and son of the last Tahirid governor in Khorasan. Although Vasmer has doubted whether Ṭāher b. Moḥammad, who ruled in Marv after the capture of Moḥammad b. Ṭāher at Nīšāpūr in 259/873, was the latter’s son, there seems no reason to doubt the filiation of Aḥmad. He is mentioned by Ebn al-Aṯīr, in his account of the complex fighting …

Official, soldier and poet of the Ghaznavid empire, flourished in the second half of the 5th/11th century during the reigns of the sultans Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd I and Masʿūd III b. Ebrāhīm. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 350-351 ABŪ NAṢR HEBATALLĀH FĀRSĪ, QEWĀM-AL-MOLK NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN, official, soldier and poet of the Ghaznavid empire, flourished in the second half of the 5th/11th century during the reigns of the sultans Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd I and Masʿūd III b. Ebrāhīm. His antecedents and his dates of birth an…

a medieval town of Transoxania, in a rural district ( rostāq) of the middle Jaxartes River (Syr Darya), apparently known in early Islamic times as Fārāb/Pārāb/Bārāb. OTRĀR, a medieval town of Transoxania, in a rural district ( rostāq) of the middle Jaxartes River (Syr Darya), apparently known in early Islamic times as Fārāb/Pārāb/Bārāb. The latter two forms are found in the 10th-century geographers (e.g., Moqaddasi [Maqdesi], pp. 263, 273; Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 510-11, tr. Kramers and Wiet, II, p. 488; Ḥodud al-ʿālam, ed. Sotuda, pp. 117-18, tr. Minorsky, pp. 118-19.) It was notab…