Search

, Thoma, an Armenian historian, who lived in the second half of the ninth century and beginning of the tenth. He says he was acquainted with the assassin of Yūsuf b. Abī Saʿīd, who was killed in 851 (p. 105) and the authentic part of his work comes down at least to 906 (p. 210—211) and perhaps even to before 943 (p. 236, 245). Of his private life we know only that he was a monk ( vardapet) and that he travelled in Transcaucasia (p. 236). By birth he must have been connected with the Artsruni noble family who were feudatories of Waspurakan, i. e. of the lands lying east o…

, a Zoroastrian dynasty whom the Arabs found in the region of Dunbāwand (Damāwand) to the north of Raiy. The origins of the Maṣmug̲h̲āns. The dynasty seems to have been an old though not particularly celebrated one as is shown by the legends recorded by Ibn al-Faḳīh, p. 275—277, and in al-Bīrūnī, p. 227. The title of maṣmug̲h̲ān is said to have been conferred by Farīdūn upon Armāʾīl, Bēwarāsp’s former cook (Zohāk), who had been able to save half the young men destined to perish as food for the tyrant’s serpents. A…

, or Abīward [q. v.], a town and district on the northern slopes of the mountains of Ḵh̲orāsān in an area now belonging to the autonomous Turkoman republic which forms part of the U. S. S. R. The whole oasis region including Nasā [q.v.], Bāward etc. (known by the Turkish name of Ätäk “foothills”) ¶ played a great part in ancient times as the first line of defence of Ḵh̲orāsān against the nomads. In the Arsacid period this region was in the ancestral country of the dynasty. Isidore of Charax, § 13 (at the beginning of the Christian era) mentions between Παρθυηνή (with…

, a dynasty of Atābegs which ruled in Northern and Western Luristān between 580 (1184) and 1006 (1597) with Ḵh̲urramābād as their capital. The Atābegs were descended from the Lur tribe of Ḏj̲angrūʾī (Ḏj̲angardī?). The dynasty is also known by the name of Ḵh̲urshīdī from the name of the first Atābeg. (It remains to be seen if this name is connected with that of Muḥammad Ḵh̲urs̲h̲īd, vizier of the former rulers ¶ of Luristān before the rise of the Atābegs of Lur-i Buzurg). After 730 the power passed to another line which later claimed to be of ʿAlid descent; at this time also the title malik succeede…

(or Ṭawārān?), the old name of a district in Balūčistān. According to Ṭabarī, i. 820, the kings of Ṭūrān and of Makurān (Mukrān) submitted to the Sāsānian Ardas̲h̲īr (224—241). The Paikulī inscription only mentions the Makurān-s̲h̲āh. Herzfeld, Paikuli, p. 38, thinks that these princes at first owned the suzerainty of the Sakas and their submission to Ardas̲h̲īr was the result of the conquest of Sakastān (=Sīstān) by this monarch. Balād̲h̲urī does not mention al-Ṭūrān. According to one of his sources, Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ [q. v.] appointed Saʿīd b. Aslam to Mukrān and…

(and Ṭassūd̲j̲), 1. Arabicised forms of the Persian word tasū (Phi. *tasūk, cf. Phi. tasum “fourth” <.*čaθruma; cf. Salemann, Manich. Studien, i. 128; Tedesco, Dialectologie der west-iranischen Turfantexte, p. 209) which means the 24th part of certains measures (Vullers, i. 445). According to the Farhang-i S̲h̲uʿūri, two d̲j̲aw = a ḥabba; two ḥabba = a tasūd̲j̲; four tasūd̲j̲ = a dāng; six dāng = a dīnār. In the Dīwān of Ḳāsim al-Anwār (Bib. Nat. de Paris, Sup. Pers. 717, fol. 174) is a verse giving to tasu some mystic sense. The word is found in Arménien thasu and in Aramaic ṭyswga; cf. Hübsc…

1. A town in Gīlan to the east of the Safīd-Rūd and north of the mountain Dulfāk (cf. the ancient name of a people Δέρβικαι) on the river Čom-k̲h̲ala (Purdesar) which 8 miles higher up flows through Langarūd, the present capital of the district of Rān-i Kūh. Lāhīd̲j̲ān although unknown to the early Arab geographers is certainly one of the oldest towns in Gīlān. Its foundation is attributed to the legendary Lāhīd̲j̲ b. Sām b. Nūḥ. The river Safīd-Rūd divides Gīlān into two parts. In ancient times the river formed the frontier between the Amar…

(Mūg̲h̲ān). In the important passage in Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲, ii. 5 (omitted in Marquart, Ērānšahr, p. 119), it is distinctly stated that al-Mūḳāniya conquered by the lord of S̲h̲irwān [q. v.] was situated near Ḳabala [cf. s̲h̲ekkī], i. e. to the north of the Kur, and was different from al-Mūḳāniya on the shore of the Caspian Sea (cf. the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, with notes by Minorsky, in G.M.S., 1937, p. 407). In the Georgian Chronicle (Brosset, Hist. de la Georgie, i. 18) we read that Mowakan son of Thargamos received from his father “the north ( sic) of Mtkwar (= Kur) from the junction with the …

, a district in the province of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān in Persia, to the north-west of the Lake of Urmiyah and having an area of 25 miles (N. to S.) by 40 (E. to W.). To the south the chain ¶ of the Awg̲h̲ān (Afg̲h̲ān)-dag̲h̲ with its pass Wer gewīz (6,150 feet high) separates Salmis from the district of Urmiyah (Urūmī); the eastern portion of the Awg̲h̲ān-dag̲h̲ forms the lofty promontory of Ḳara-bāg̲h̲ [q.v.] which runs out into the Lake; at the end of it is the fortress of Güwerčin-Ḳalʿa. In the west the Harāwīl range (in Turkish Araʾu…

, capital of the Persian province of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān [q. v.]. Geographical position. The town lies in the eastern corner of the alluvial plain (measuring about 30 × 20 miles) sloping slightly towards the north-east bank of Lake Urmiya. The plain is watered by several streams, the chief of which is the Ad̲j̲i̊-čai (“bitter river”) which, rising in the south-west face of Mount Sawalān runs along the Ḳarad̲j̲a-dag̲h̲ which forms a barrier on the south and entering the plain runs around on the northwest suburbs of the town. The left bank tributary ¶ of the Ad̲j̲i̊-čai, Mihrān-rūd (now th…

, 1. a dynasty in Kirmān [q. v.] in the viith (xiiith) century, descended from the heathen Ḳara-Ḵh̲itai people [q. v.]. The dynasty, successively vassals of the Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh, the Great Mongol Ḵh̲āns and the dynasty of Hūlāgū Ḵh̲ān (Īlk̲h̲āns), lasted from 619 (620?) to 706 and never had more than local importance. It entertained close relations with the neighbouring dynasties of the Atābegs of’Yazd, the Salg̲h̲urids of Fārs and the Muẓaffarids [q. v.] and came into occasional contact with the Caliph and with India. The…

(Nak̲h̲ičewān), a t own to the north of the Araxes. The town Ναξουάνα is mentioned in Ptolemy, v., ch. 12. The Armenians explain the name of Nak̲h̲čawan (Nak̲h̲čuan) by a popular etymology as nak̲h̲-id̲j̲ewan “(Noah’s) first stopping-place” (although the name is apparently compounded with -awan “place”) and locate the town in the province of Waspurakan (cf. Yāḳūt, i. 122), or in that of Siunikh. According to Moses of Chorene, i. ch. 30, Nak̲h̲ičewan was in the area peopled by Median prisoners ( mar) in whom we should see the ancestors of the Kurds of this region (cf. Balād̲h̲urī, p. 200; nahr …

(S̲h̲ahrazūr, in the S̲h̲eref-nāme:. S̲h̲ahra-zūl), a district in Kurdistān. S̲h̲ehrizūr, strictly speaking, is a beautiful and fertile plain (36 × 25 miles) situated to the west of the chain of Awrāmān (cf. senne). To the south-east it adjoins the Persian district of Awrāmān-i luhūn. On the south the river Sīrwān is the boundary of the district; on the south-west S̲h̲ehrizūr extends as far as the pass of Darband-i Ḵh̲ān by which the Sīrwān (Diyāla) makes its way to the south. On the west S̲h̲ehrizūr is bounded by Arbet which …

(often Nisā), the name of several places in Persia: in Ḵh̲urāsān, Fārs, Kirmān and Hamad̲h̲ān; cf. Yāḳūt, iv. 778. (According to Bartholomae, nisāya means “settlement”). 1. Nasā in Ḵh̲urāsān was situated in the cultivated zone which lies north of the range separating Ḵh̲urāsān from the Turkoman steppes. It corresponds to the Νίσαια, Νίσαιον πεδίον of the classical authors, celebrated for its breed of horses (Herodotos, iii. 106; cf. Strabo, xi., ch. xiv., §7). Alexander the Great is said to have built an Alexandropolis …

(p.), “house of strength”, the Persian gymnasium. There are zūrk̲h̲āna in many Persian towns and often also in several quarters of a large town. From the architectural point of view these gymnasiums recall an eastern bath lit by a skylight in the centre of the little dome. The arena ( go u d) lies below the level of the floor. The superintendent and the spectators take their places in niches cut in the walls; sometimes there is a kind of gallery reserved for the public. Among the members of a zūrk̲h̲āna various degrees are distinguished: a nouče “novice”, nouk̲h̲āste “beginner”, pähläwān “athl…

(Mūg̲h̲ān), a steppe lying to the south of the lower course of the Araxes, one part of which (about 5,000 square kilometres) belongs to Russia (U. S. S. R.) and the other (50—70 × c. 50 kilometres) to Persia. The steppe which covers what was once the bottom of the sea has been formed by the alluvial deposits from the Kur (in Russian Koura) and its tributary the Araxes. (The latter has several times changed its course and one of its arms flows directly into the gulf of Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ag̲h̲ač). In the i…

, a little seaport on the Persian Gulf which lies between Lāristān [q. v.] and the desert. The old port was at Kung, 8 miles east of Linga; the Portuguese had a factory there where they ruled long after the loss of Hormūz (to 1711). In the reign of the Zand dynasty, 1,000 Ḏj̲awāsim Arabs (Banī Ḏj̲ās̲h̲im, Ḏj̲awās̲h̲im, Kowāsim) with their chief S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Ṣāliḥ came from Ras al-Ḵh̲aima (ʿOmān) and took Linga from the kalāntar of the district Ḏj̲ahāngīrī. In 1887 the Persian government took possession of Linga and deported to Ṭeherān the last hereditary s̲h̲aik̲h̲ (Ḳaḍ…

, a Kurdish district in Persia near the Turkish frontier. In Kurdish, sōmāi means “view” (cf. in Persian sūma, “terminus, finis, scopus”, Vullers, ii. 352). To the north Ṣōmāi is separated from the basin of the Zola-čai (S̲h̲epirān, Salmās, q. v.) by the mountains of Bere-dī, Und̲j̲ali̊ḳ and Ag̲h̲wān; on the east the canton of Anzal separates it from Lake Urmia; to the southeast lies the S̲h̲aik̲h̲-Bāzīd range, to the south the canton of Brādōst; to the S.W. the peak of Kotūl; towards the west the ravine of Bāneg…

(Banī Lām), an Arab tribe leading a nomadic life on the lower course of the Tigris (ʿAlī G̲h̲arbī, ʿAlī S̲h̲arḳī, ʿAmāra). According to the statistics of Ḵh̲urs̲h̲īd Efendi (middle of the xixth century) there were over 4,400 families of Banī Lām west of the Tigris (between ʿAmāra and S̲h̲aṭṭ al-Ḥaiy) and 5,070 east of the Tigris, along the Persian frontier from Mandalī to the region of marshes ( k̲h̲ōr) into which the Kark̲h̲a disappears. 17,450 families of the Banī Lām went over to Persian territory between 1788 and 1846 (the southern parts of the Pus̲h̲t-i Kūh…

, “land of the Kurds”. The name can be regarded from two points of view: historical and ethnographical. I. From the historical point of view the term Kurdistān seems to have been invented by the Sald̲j̲ūḳs as a name for the province including the lands between Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān and Luristān (Senna, Dainawar, Hamadān, Kirmāns̲h̲āh etc.) as well as certain a joining areas to the west of Zagros (S̲h̲ahrizūr, Ḵh̲uftiyān = Kōi-sand̲j̲aḳ?). The capital of the province of Kurdistān was at first Bahār (N. E. of Hamadān) a…