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a district of medieval Islamic Transoxania lying to the east of Samarqand (q.v.) on the upper reaches of the Zarafšān river or Nahr-e Ṣogd. OSRUŠANA, a district of medieval Islamic Transoxania lying to the east of Samarqand on the upper reaches of the Zarafšān river or Nahr-e Ṣogd. It extended northwards to the southern bend of the Syr Darya and the western fringes of Farghana (see FARḠĀNA), and southwestwards to the Bottamān mountains, which separated the upper Oxus basin and its right-bank tributaries from the Syr Da…

a military adventurer who temporarily held power in Sīstān during the confused years following the collapse of the first Saffarid amirate and the military empire of ʿAmr b. Layṯ in 287/900. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 643 AḤMAD B. QODĀM, a military adventurer who temporarily held power in Sīstān during the confused years following the collapse of the first Saffarid amirate and the military empire of ʿAmr b. Layṯ¯ in 287/900. In the ensuing years, various Saffarid princes held power within the lim…

a settlement in medieval Badaḵšān in northeastern Afghanistan, now in the modern Afghan province of Eškāšem. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 6, pp. 614 EŠKĀŠ(E)M (called Sekāšem, Sekīmešt, and Eskīmešt by early geographers), a settlement in medieval Badaḵšān in northeastern Afghanistan (q.v.), now in the modern Afghan province of Eškāšem (lat. 36° 43′ N., long. 71° 34′ E.; not to be confused with Eškameš, further to the west in the Qondoz or Qaṭaḡan district of Badaḵšān). It is situated o…

(819-93), littérateur ( adīb) and historian of Baghdad, of a Khorasani family. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 6, pp. 663-664 EBN ABĪ ṬĀHER ṬAYFŪR, ABU’L-FAŻL AḤMAD (204-80/819-93), littérateur ( adīb) and historian of Baghdad, of a Khorasani family. His extensive adab works include treatises on poets and singing, praised by Abu’l-Faraj Eṣfahānī in his Ketāb al-aḡānī, and the partially extant literary anthology Ketāb al-manṯūr wa’l-manẓūm (Cairo, 1326/1908), used by, among others, Abū Ḥayyān Tawḥīdī in his al-Baṣāʾer wa’l-ḏaḵāʾer (see the li…

(d. Marv, 1116-17), Persian writer and boon-companion ( nadīm), whose manual for courtiers preserves otherwise lost information on the later Ghaznavids. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 1-2 EBN BĀBĀ KĀŠĀNĪ (Qāšānī), ABU’L-ʿABBĀS (d. Marv, 510/1116-17), Persian writer and boon-companion ( nadīm), whose manual for courtiers preserves otherwise lost information on the later Ghaznavids. Presumably a native of Kāšān, Ebn Bābā worked in western Persia, Baghdad, and finally Khorasan, probably at the court o…

vizier of the Ghaznavids in the late 5th/11th to early 6th/12th century. He is described as serving Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (451-92/1059-99). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 1, pp. 110 ʿABD-AL -ḤAMĪD B. AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-AL-SAMAD ŠĪRĀZĪ, vizier of the Ghaznavids in the late 5th/11th to early 6th/12th century. He is described as serving Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (451-92/1059-99) for twenty-two years and then his son Masʿūd III (492-508/1099-1115) for all sixteen years of his reign, which would…

the Arabised form of Kufiči, lit. “mountain dweller,” the name of a people of southeastern Iran found in the Islamic historians and geographers of the 10th-11th centuries. QOFṢ, the Arabised form of Kufiči, lit. “mountain dweller,” the name of a people of southeastern Iran found in the Islamic historians and geographers of the 10th-11th centuries (on the etymology of their name, see Bosworth, 1976, p. 9). They are frequently linked in these sources with the Baluch, as the Qofṣ wa Baluṣ or Kuč o Baluč, but must have been e…

great-grandson of the co-founder of the Saffarid dynasty and ephemeral boy amir in Sīstān, 299-301/912-13. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 992 ʿAMR B. YAʿQŪB B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿAMR B. LAYṮ ABŪ ḤAFṢ, great-grandson of the co-founder of the Saffarid dynasty and ephemeral boy amir in Sīstān, 299-301/912-13. The first Saffarid empire had collapsed a decade after the defeat and capture of ʿAmr b. Layṯ, and Sīstān itself had come under Samanid occupation in 298/911, with Abū Ṣāleḥ Manṣūr b. Esḥ…

the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Āmu Daryā. MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR (lit. “what lies beyond the river”), the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Āmu Daryā, in contrast to Iran proper and its eastern province …

Abu’l -ʿAbbās (b. 209/824-25, d. 253/ 867), high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate. MOḤAMMAD b. ʿABD-ALLAH b. ṬĀHER, Abu’l -ʿAbbās (b. 209/824-25, d. 253/ 867), high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate. He was one of several sons of ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ṭāher Ḏu’l-Yaminayn, governor of Khorasan for the ʿAbbasids 213-30/828-45 (see ʿABD-ALLĀH B. ṬĀHER ḎU’L-YAMINAYN), and spent his early years in Khorasan as one of his father’s aides. Then he was summoned westwards by the caliph al-Motwakkel to take over the governorship and šorṭa (command of the guard)…

called JAHĀNSŪZ, Ghurid sultan and the first ruler of the Šansabānī family to make the Ghurids a major power in the eastern Islamic world (544-56/1149-61). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 778-779 ʿALĀʾ-AL- DĪN ḤOSAYN B. ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN ḤOSAYN, called JAHĀNSŪZ, Ghurid sultan and the first ruler of the Šansabānī family to make the Ghurids a major power in the eastern Islamic world (544-56/1149-61). By the early 6th/12th century the Šansabānī chiefs had acquired the main power in the mountainous region of Ḡ…

Samanid prince, the cousin of the amir Aḥmad b. Esmāʿīl (295-301/907-14) and uncle of his successor Naṣr b. Aḥmad (301-31/914-43). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 4, pp. 383 ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ MANṢŪR B. ESḤĀQ B. AḤMAD B. ASAD SĀMĀNĪ, Samanid prince, the cousin of the amir Aḥmad b. Esmāʿīl (295-301/907-14) and uncle of his successor Naṣr b. Aḥmad (301-31/914-43). Little is known of his personal life, except that he filled various governorships on behalf of the Samanid rulers. Esmāʿīl b. Aḥmad (279-95/892-90…

a concise but very important Persian geography of the then known world, Islamic and non-Islamic, begun in 982-83 by an unknown author from the province of Guzgān (in northern Afghanistan). A version of this article is available in print Volume XII, Fascicle 4, pp. 417-418 ḤODUD AL-ʿĀLAM, a concise but very important Persian geography of the then known world, Islamic and non-Islamic, begun in 372/982-83 by an unknown author from the province of Guzgān (q.v.) in what is now northern Afghanistan. It was dedicated to the local prince of the Far…

Ghaznavid official and vizier, d. ca. 434/1043. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 660-661 AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD ŠĪRĀZĪ, ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ NAṢR (usually “Aḥmad-e ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad” in Bayhaqī, Ghaznavid official and vizier, d. ca. 434/1043. The nesba “Šīrāzī” indicates a family origin in southwest Persia; and panegyrics to Aḥmad’s son mention descent from the ʿAbbasids. But the family was in the service of the Samanids by the late 4th/10th century; and Aḥmad’s father, Abū Ṭāher, is only heard of as …

Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 6, pp. 614-615 ČAḠĀNĪĀN (Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ; Marquart’s speculation [1938, p. 93] of an origin in Mongolian čagan “white” is baseless; attested in Sogdian writing as cγʾny [Henning, pp. 8-9]), a district of medieval Islamic Transoxania substantially comprising the basin of the right-bank affluent of the Oxus, the Ča…

vizier to the Buyid ruler of Fars and Khuzestan. EBN MAFANA, Abu Manṣur Bahrām b. Māfana (< māh-panāh "under the moon’s protection,” Justi, Namenbuch, p. 187), called in the sources al-ʿĀdel "the Just One,” vizier to the Buyid ruler of Fars and Khuzestan, ʿEmād-al-Din Abu Kālijār Marzobān (r. in Shiraz 415-40/1024-48; see Buyids). Ebn Māfana was born at Kāzarun in 366/976-77 (Ebn al-Jawzi, VIII, p. 111; Ebn al-Aṯir, IX, p. 502). Details of his early life are lacking, but he presumably embarked on a secretarial career. He is mentioned as adviser to…

“Still water,” a salt lake in the province of Ḡazna in modern Afghanistan, lying 30 km southeast of the present Ḡazna-Kandahār highway and 100 km south of Ḡazna itself. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 1, pp. 48 ĀB-E ĪSTĀDA “still water,” a salt lake in the province of Ḡazna in modern Afghanistan, lying 30 km southeast of the present Ḡazna-Kandahār highway and 100 km south of Ḡazna itself, in 32°30 ′ north latitude and 67°55 ′ east longitude and at an altitude of 2,130 m above sea level. The lake, some 25 …

one of the five administrative divisions (kūra) of Fārs, in Sasanian and early Islamic times. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 4, pp. 384-385 ARDAŠĪR-ḴORRA, one of the five administrative divisions ( kūra) of Fārs, in Sasanian and early Islamic times (the other four being enumerated under the Sasanians as Šāpūr-Ḵorra, Arraǰān, Eṣṭaḵr and Dārābīerd). The name means literally “glory of Ardašīr,” with reference to the founder of the Sasanian monarchy, Ardašīr I, son of Pāpak, just as Šāpūr-Ḵorra (lyin…

or Parau, a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern edge of the Kopet-Dag range facing the Kara Kum desert. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 244-245 FARĀVA (Parau), a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern edge of the Kopet-Dag range facing the Kara Kum desert. In the early Islamic period it was one of a string of strongly defended fortresses ( rebāṭs), also including Abīvard, Nasā, and Dehestān (qq.v.), along the northern front…

a small town of medieval Fārs, now in the modern rural subdistrict of the same name. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 5, pp. 520 EQLĪD, a small town of medieval Fārs, now in the modern rural subdistrict of the same name (lat. 30° 54’ N., long. 52° 40’ E.). It lies in the Zagros Mountains, and the mediaeval geographers placed it therefore in the sardsīr or cold zone. Administratively, it was in the kūra of Eṣṭaḵr, and is described by the early geographers as populous, with a fortress, running water, and extensive agricultural lands where …