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(p.) «province», «capitale provinciale», «[grande] ville». Le mot prolonge le moyen persan s̲h̲ahrestān, qui a les mêmes acceptions. Il se peut toutefois qu’il remonte encore au-delà à un vieux-perse hypothétique * xšaça-stāna-. En tout état de cause, il dérive de s̲h̲ahr [ q.v.] — ou de son ascendant — et de -stāna «lieu» (dans les composés); un s̲h̲ahristān est ainsi littéralement un «lieu de royauté», c’est-à-dire le siège du représentant d’un pouvoir monarchique (la capitale provinciale), et donc la région sur laquelle ce représentant exerce son a…

, métricien et poète mineur persan à la cour tīmūride de Harāt pendant la seconde moitié du IXe/XVe siècle. Il est connu pour son manuel de prosodie persane ʿArūḍ-i Sayfī, achevé en 896/1491, et publié plusieurs fois en Inde, notamment avec une traduction anglaise et un volumineux commentaire dans H. Blochmann, The prosody of the Persians according to Saifi, Jami, and other writers, Calcutta 1872. Cet ouvrage a joué un rôle important en rendant la théorie poétique persane accessible aux étudiants européens. Mais depuis que des textes plus anciens et plus a…

, Kitāb, «la Lettre de Tansar», traité politique de la Perse sāsānide, connu dans le monde musulman par une traduction en arabe, probablement d’Ibn al-Muḳaffaʿ [ q.v.], d’un original en pahlavi perdu aujourd’hui. Elle est censé avoir été écrite par «Tansar» (une lecture erronnée, de l’écriture pahlavi, pour Tusar, peut-être une abréviation de *Tus-artēs̲h̲tār, en avestique Tusa-raθaēštar — «T. le guerrier»), grand prêtre du premier roi sāsānide, Ardas̲h̲īr Ier (vers 224-40), et adressée à Gus̲h̲tāsp, roi du Ṭabarīstān, pour l’encourager à se soumettre à Ardas̲h̲…

(a.) 1. Emploi kurʾānique et en arabe ancien. Sid̲j̲ill est un mot arabe désignant différents types de documents, en particulier ceux de nature officielle ou juridique. Il a longtemps été admis (tout d’abord, semble-t-il par Fraenkel) que ce terme remontait en définitive au latin sigillum qui signifie, dans la langue classique, «cachet» («cachet-matrice» et «cachetimpression»), mais qui était aussi utilisé en latin du Moyen-Age pour désigner des documents sur lesquels un sceau était porté; il fut emprunté par le grec byzantin comme σιγιλλ…

, Muʾayyid al-dīn Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Muns̲h̲iʾ al-Iṣbahānī, secrétaire, poète arabe et alchimiste. Il naquit en 453/1061 à Iṣfahān, et ses poèmes démontrent amplement son attachement indéfectible pour sa ville natale. Il entra au service des Sald̲j̲ūḳs au temps de Malik S̲h̲āh et y resta pour devenir premier secrétaire sous le fils du souverain, Muḥammad Ier, avec les titres de muns̲h̲iʾ, mutawallī dīwān al-ṭug̲h̲rāʾ et ṣāḥīb dīwān al-ins̲h̲āʾ; en bref, il avait la deuxième place (après le wazīr) en tant que fonctionnaire de l’administration civile de l’empir…

1. Le mot. Zindīḳ, plur. zanādiḳa, nom collectif/abstrait zandaḳa, est un mot arabe emprunté (du moins en première instance) au perse dans le sens précis et limité de «manichéen» (syn. mānawī ou le quasi-araméen manānī), utilisé également d’une façon plus large pour désigner un «hérétique», un «renégat» ou un «incroyant», reprenant le sens de mulḥid, murtadd et kāfir. La première attestation de ce mot, quelle qu’en soit la langue, se trouve dans l’inscription en moyen-perse du grand prêtre zoroastrien Kirdīr sur ce qu’on ¶ nomme Kaʿba-yi Zardhus̲h̲t, à la fin du IIIe s. après J.-C. (p…

, ou S̲h̲awarwa, Banū, lectures conventionnelles du nom d’une famille de clercs et d’hommes de lettres ḥanafites à Iṣfahān dans le courant du VIe/XIIe siècle. Le nom n’a pas été expliqué, et pourrait sans doute être lu plutôt (en persan) S̲h̲aβ-rō «face noire». Bien que plusieurs membres de la famille soient mentionnés dans des ouvrages biographiques, le seul dont nous ayons une connaissance précise est S̲h̲araf al-dīn ʿAbd al-Muʿmin b. Hibat Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Hibat Allāh b. Ḥamza al-maʿrūf bi-S̲h̲awarwa, savant religieux qui vécut longtemps à Damas et au Caire (où il re…

1. The word. Zindīḳ , pl. zanādiḳa , abstract/collective noun zandaḳa , is an Arabic word borrowed (at least in the first instance) from Persian, and used in the narrow and precise meaning “Manichaean” (synonym: Mānawī , or the quasi-Aramaic Manānī ), but also loosely for “heretic, renegade, unbeliever”, in effect as a synonym for mulḥid , murtadd or kāfir . The earliest attestation of the word, in any language, is in the Middle Persian inscription of the Zoroastrian high priest ¶ Kirdīr on the so-called Kaʿba-yi Zardus̲h̲t, from the end of the 3rd cent…

(a., pl. tarād̲j̲im ), verbal noun of the verb tard̲j̲ama “to interpret, translate, write the biography of someone ( lahu )”. For the function of interpreter, see tard̲j̲umān . ¶ 1. In literature. Here, it may form part of the title of a biography, or, especially in contemporary North Africa, the biography (or autobiography) itself. Hence ʿilm al-tarād̲j̲im is a branch of historical research, sometimes equated by the Twelver S̲h̲īʿa with ʿilm al-rid̲j̲āl [ q.v.]. The term dates to at least the early 5th/11th century, where it appears in the titles of three works by al…

(p.) “province”, “provincial capital”, “[large] town”. The word continues Middle Persian s̲h̲ahrestān , which has the same meanings, though it is certainly possible that it goes back even further to an unattested Old Persian * xšaça-stāna- . In any case, it is derived from s̲h̲ahr [ q.v.]—or its ancestor—and -stāna “place” (in compounds); a s̲h̲ahristān is thus literally a “place of kingship”, i.e. the seat of the local representative of royal power (the provincial capital) and then also the region over which that representati…

, the 28th letter of the Arabic alphabet, with the numerical value 10. It stands for the semivowel y and for the long vowel ī , which the grammarians analyse as short i ( kasra ) plus yāʾ . For the shortening of final -ī before hamzat al-waṣl , see wāw . ϒāʾ is also used, like alif and wāw, as a “support” for medial or final hamza [ q.v.], reflecting presumably the ancient Ḥid̲j̲āzī dialect loss of hamza in certain positions with concomitant glides. In word-final position, alif maḳṣūra (that is to say: long ā not followed by hamza) is written sometimes with alif and sometimes with yāʾ. In the latter c…

(better Sōzanī), Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (or Masʿūd?) al-Samarḳandī, Persian satirical poet of the 6th/12th century. A native of Nasaf (Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab), he eulogised several of the Ḳarak̲h̲ānid rulers of Samarḳand, from Arslān S̲h̲āh Muḥammad II (495- ca. 523/1102- ca. 1129) up to Ḳi̊li̊č Ṭamg̲h̲āč K̲h̲ān Masʿūd II ( ca. 556-74/ ca. 1161-78), but also several of the Burhānid ṣadr s of Buk̲h̲ārā [see ṣadr . 1], the Sald̲j̲ūḳid Sand̲j̲ar [ q.v.] and others. Dawlats̲h̲āh, who appears to have seen Sūzanī’s grave in Samarḳand, says that he died in 569/1173-4, and adds that bef…

(a.), or, with the usual weakening of final hamza , Ṣābī , plural Ṣābiʾūn , Ṣābiʾa , Ṣāba , in English “Sabian” (preferably not “Sabaean”, which renders Sabaʾ [ q.v.]), a name applied in Arabic to at least three entirely different religious communities: (1) the Ṣābiʾūn who are mentioned three times in the Ḳurʾān (II 62, V 69, XXII 17) together with the Christians and Jews. Their identity, which has been much debated both by the Muslim commentators and by modern orientalists, was evidently uncertain already shortly after the time of Muḥamma…

, Muʾayyid al-Dīn Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Muns̲h̲iʾ al-Iṣbahānī, secretary, Arabic poet and alchemist. He was born in 453/1061 at Iṣfahān, and his poems give ample testimony of his lasting attachment to his native town. He entered the service of Sald̲j̲ūḳs at the time of Malik S̲h̲āh and went on to become chief secretary under that ruler’s son, Muḥammad I, with the tides muns̲h̲iʾ , mutawallī dīwān al-ṭug̲h̲rāʾ and ṣāḥib dīwān al-ins̲h̲āʾ ; in short, he was the second most senior official (after the wazīr ) in the civil administration of the Sald̲j̲…

(p.), the name of a mythical bird. There are two passages in the Avesta referring to the “bird Saēna-” ( mərə γ ō saēnō ; Yašt 14: 41) or the “tree of Saēna-” ( vanam yam saēnahe ; Yašt 12: 17); the latter specifies that this tree stands in the middle of Lake Vourukaša, that its name is “all-remedies” and that it bears the seeds of all plants. The word saēna is etymologically identical with Sanskrit śyēná- , “eagle, falcon”, but it is not clear from the two Avestan passages whether it designates a species of bird (though the fact that Saēna- is used…

, a long narrative poem in Persian by Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn Asʿad Gurgānī [ q.v.], written not long after 441/1050 and dedicated to Abū Naṣr b. Manṣūr, the governor of Iṣfahān on behalf of the Sald̲j̲ūḳids. The story, which is set in the distant and unspecified past, deals with the love affair between Wīs, the wife of King Mōbad of Marw, and Rāmīn, her husband’s younger brother. It tells of how the two lovers meet, how they are eventually discovered, and how Rāmīn rises in rebellion against his brother, in the end …

Muḥammad b. S̲h̲araf al-Dīn ʿAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-Kās̲h̲ānī, commonly called Taḳī Kās̲h̲ī , Persian scholar of the 10th-11th/16th-17th centuries. He was a pupil of the poet Muḥtas̲h̲am Kās̲h̲ī, whose dīwān he edited. His fame rests on his monumental compendium of Persian poetry K̲h̲ulāṣat al-as̲h̲ʿār wa-zubdat al-afkār , of which the first version was completed in 993/1585 and the enlarged second version in 1016/1607-8. It contains notices of well over 600 poets from the 5th/11th century up to the author’s own contempora…

(a.). 1. Ḳurʾānic and early Arabic usage. Sid̲j̲ill is an Arabic word for various types of documents, especially of an official or juridical nature. It has long been recognised (first, it seems, by Fraenkel) that it goes back ultimately to Latin sigillum , which in the classical language means “seal” (i.e. both “sealmatrix” and “seal-impression”), but which in Mediaeval Latin is used also for the document to which a seal has been affixed; it was borrowed into Byzantine Greek as σιγίλλ(ι)ον, “seal, treaty, imperial edict”, and then, via Aramaic (e.g. Syriac sygylywn …

, Kitāb , “the Letter of Tansar”, a political treatise from Sāsānid Persia, known in the Islamic world through an Arabic translation, probably by Ibn al-Muḳaffaʿ [ q.v.], from a lost original in Pahlavi. It was ostensibly written by “Tansar” (a misreading, in Pahlavi script, for Tusar, perhaps an abbreviation of * Tus-artēs̲h̲tār , Avestan Tusa-raθaēštar- “T. the warrior”), the chief priest of the first Sāsānid king, Ardas̲h̲īr I ( ca. 224-40), to Gus̲h̲tāsp, the king of Ṭabaristān, encouraging him to submit to Ardas̲h̲īr and, more generally, justifying the Sāsāni…

a Persian poet of the first half of the 6th/12th century. His dīwān , which has been published twice (ed. ʿAlī Ḳawīm, Tehran 1331 S̲h̲ ./1952-3, and ed. M.ʿA. Nāṣiḥ, Tehran 1343 S̲h̲./1964), consists almost entirely of panegyrics praising the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultan Sand̲j̲ar (511-52/1118-57), the Ḵh̲wārazms̲h̲āh Atsi̊z (521-68/1127-72) and various persons at their respective courts, in particular Sand̲j̲ar’s raʾīs-i Ḵh̲urāsān , Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Musawī, the poet’s principal patron. The rivalry between his two royal master…