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or ālind̲j̲a (in Armenian Ernd̲j̲ak, a district of the province Siunikʿ), now ruins within the Nak̲h̲ičewān territory of the Azerbayd̲j̲an Soviet Socialist Republic. The river Alind̲j̲a flows into the Araxes near Old Ḏj̲ulfa. The ancient fortress Alind̲j̲aḳ stood some 20 km. above its estuary on the right bank of the river, on the top of an extremely steep mountain (near the village Ḵh̲ānaḳā). The fortress played a considerable role at the Tīmūrid and Turkman period.…

, "Men of God", a secret religion prevalent mainly in western Persia. Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ would seem to be a rather imprecise name for this sect, because it is used, for example, by the Ḥurūfīs (see Cl. Huart, Textes persans relatives à la secte des Ḥurūfī , 1909, 40), and because it has an affinity with such ṣūfī terms as Ahl-i Ḥaḳīḳa , a term which is also used by the Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ. In the strict sense, however, Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ is the name properly given to initiates of the religion described in the present article. The name ʿAlī Ilāhī [ q.v.] applied to them by their neighbours is an unsuitable title, beca…

(in Arabic usually taken as al-lān ), an Iranian people (Alān < Aryan) of Northern Caucasus, formerly attested also east of the Caspian sea (see al-Bīrūnī, Taḥdīd al-Amākin , ed. A. Z. Validi, in Bīrūnī’s Picture of the world, 57), as supported by local toponymy. The Alān are mentioned in history from the 1st century A.D. In 371 they were defeated by the Huns. Together with the Vandals, a part of the Alāns migrated to the West across France and Spain, and finally took part in the creation of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa (418-5…

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, “land of the Lurs”, a region in the south-west of Persia. In the Mongol period the terms “Great Lur” and “Little Lur” roughly covered all the lands inhabited by Lur tribes. Since the Ṣafawid period, the lands of the Great Lur have been distinguished by the names of Kūh-Gīlū and Bak̲h̲tiyārī. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Mamāsanī confederation occupied the old S̲h̲ūlistān [ q.v.] and thus created a third Lur territory between Kūh-Gīlū and S̲h̲īrāz. It is however only since the 16th century that Lur-i Kūčik [ q.v.] has been

(in Persian Lor with o short), an Iranian people living in the mountains in southwestern Persia. As in the case of the Kurds, the principal link among the four branches of the Lurs (Mamāsanī, Kūhgīlūʾī, Bak̲h̲tiyārī and Lurs proper) is that of language. The special character of the Lur dialects suggests that the country was Iranicised from Persia and not from Media. On the ancient peoples, who have disappeared, become Iranicised or absorbed in different parts of Luristān, see luristān . The name. Local tradition ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i guzīda ) connects the name of the …

, a dynasty of princes of Marāg̲h̲a. Distinction must be made between the eponym Aḥmadīl and his successors. Aḥmadīl b. Ibrāhīm b. Wahsūdān al-Rawwādī al-Kurdī was a descendant of the local branch of the originally Arab family of Rawwād (of Azd) established in Tabrīz (see rawwādids ). In the course of time the family became Kurdicized, and even the name Aḥmadīl is apparently formed with an Iranian (Kurdish) diminutive suffix -īl . Aḥmadīl took part in the anti-Crusade of 505/1111. During the siege of Tell Bās̲h̲ir, Jocelyn made an arrangement …

, geographically speaking, the highlands of Gīlān [ q.v.]. In the south, the lowlands of Gīlān proper are bounded by the Alburz range; the latter forms here a crescent, the eastern horn of which comes close to the Caspian coast (between Lāhīd̲j̲ān and Čālūs). In the centre of the crescent there is a gap through which the Safīd-rūd, formed on the central Iranian plateau, breaks through ¶ towards the Caspian Sea. Before entering the…

, the form found in Islamic sources for the capital of Georgia, Tiflis or modern Tbilisi. The city is situated on hilly ground in the Kura river valley [see kur ] (lat. 41° 43′ N., long. 44° 49′ E.), and has a strategic position controlling the routes between eastern and western Transcaucasia which has ensured it a lively history. The city is an ancient one, being founded in A.D. 455 or 458 when the capital of Georgia was transferred thither from nearby Mtsk̲h̲eta. For the subsequent history of the city, from Byzantine and Sāsānid times through the long…

, Gurd̲j̲ , Gurd̲j̲istān , the names in Islamic sources for the province of Georgia in western Caucasia. Georgia comprises four distinct regions: Mingrelia and Imereti in the north-west; Samtask̲h̲e in the south-west (adjoining the Black Sea coastal region of Lazistān [see laz ], inhabited by a people closely related to the Georgians); Kartli in the north, with the capital Tiflis [ q.v.], Georgian Tbilisi; and Kak̲h̲eti in the east. Topographically, much of Georgia comprises mountains, hills and plateaux, with lowland only on the Black Sea coastal plain an…

, a Persian man of letters, who died on 19 S̲h̲awwāl 1313/3 April 1896. His honorific titles were Sanīʿ al-Dawla and later Iʿtimād al-Salṭana . Through his mother he was related to the Ḳād̲j̲ārs [ q.v.] and through his father he claimed descent from the Mongol rulers. His father, Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī ʿAlī K̲h̲ān of Marāg̲h̲a, was a faithful servant of Nāṣir al-Dīn S̲h̲āh (in 1268/1852 he discovered the conspiracy of Sulaymān K̲h̲ān) and the son from his youth upwards was in the service of the court. …

, a district in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān whose precise location is unknown. According to al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 328, Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ [ q.v.], sent to conquer Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, attacked the people of Mūḳān and Gīlān. A number of inhabitants of Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān and Armenians, who had gathered in the nāḥiya of Urm and at *Balwānkarad̲j̲, were defeated by one of Saʿīd’s commanders. The leader of the rebels was hanged on the walls of the fortress of Bād̲j̲arwān (see on this place, Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb , 181, tr. 173; Bād̲j̲arwān was 20 …

, a former k̲h̲ānate in the Persian province of Ad̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, and now the name of a town and of modern administrative units around it (see below). Mākū occupies the north-western extremity of Persia and forms a salient between Turkey (the old sand̲j̲aḳ of Bāyazīd, modern vilayet of Ağri) and Soviet Transcaucasia. In the west the frontier with Turkey follows the heights which continue the line of the Zagros in the direction of Ararat. The frontier then crosses a plain stretching to the south of this mountain (valle…

(i) province of Persia; (ii) Soviet Socialist Republic. (i) The great province of Persia, called in Middle Persian Āturpātākān, older new-Persian Ād̲h̲arbād̲h̲agān, Ād̲h̲arbāyagān, at present Āzarbāyd̲j̲ān, Greek ’Ατροπατήνη, Byzantine Greek ’Αδραβιγάνων, Armenian Atrapatakan, Syriac Ad̲h̲orbāyg̲h̲ān. The province was called after the general Atropates (“protected by fire”), who at the time of Alexander’s invasion proclaimed his independence (328 B.C.) and thus preserved his kingdom (Media Minor, Strabo…

, conventionally Van , the name of a lake and of a town (lat. 38° 28’ N., long. 43° 21’ E.) in what is now the Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey. 1. The lake (modern Tkish., Van Gölü). This is a large stretch of water now spanning the ils of Van and Bitlis. It lies at an altitude of 1,720 m/5,640 feet, with a rise in level during the summer when the snows on the surrounding mountain ranges melt. Its area is 3,737 km2/1,443 sq. miles. Being landlocked, with no outlet, it has a high content of mineral salts, especially sodium carbonate, which makes its water undrinkable, but…

, a small town in Persia, on the eastern (winter) road from S̲h̲īrāz to Iṣfahān. By the present-day highway Ābādah lies at 280 km. from S̲h̲īrāz, at 204 km. from Iṣfahān, and by a road branching off eastwards (via Abarḳūh) at 100 km. from Yazd. In the present-day administration (1952) Ābādah is the northernmost district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of the province ( astān ) of Fārs. The population is chiefly engaged in agriculture and trade (opium, castor-oil; sesame-oil). Iḳlīd (possibly * kilid "key [to Fārs]") is another small town belonging to Ābādah. The whole…

, the name of two places in Persia. I. Tihrān, a city of northern Persia. 1. Geographical position. 2. History to 1926. 3. The growth of Tihrān. (a). To ca 1870. (b). Urbanisation, monuments, cultural and socioeconomic life until the time of the Pahlavīs. (c). Since the advent of the Pahlavīs. II. Tihrān, the former name of a village or small town in the modern province of Iṣfahān. I. Tihrān, older form (in use until the earlier 20th century) Ṭihrān (Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, iv, 51, gives both forms, with Ṭihrān as the head word; al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, i…

, Nad̲j̲af Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān, a Bak̲h̲tiyārī chief born about 1846. His father was Ḥusayn Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān, more commonly known as Īlk̲h̲ānī, the first Bak̲h̲tiyārī leader to be formally designated Īlk̲h̲ān of all the Bak̲h̲tiyārī by the imperial government in Tehran, and who was poisoned on the orders of prince Ẓill al-Sulṭān, the famous governor-general of Iṣfāhān, who feared his growing power. Ṣamṣām al-Salṭana was Īlbeg of the Bak̲h̲tiyārī in 1903-5 and later Īlk̲h̲ān. He is remembered principally for the part he played as one of the leaders of the Bak̲h̲tiyārī intervention …

(the contracted form Rāmiz , Rāmuz is found as early as the 4th/10th century), a town and district in K̲h̲ūzistān [ q.v.] in southwestern Persia. Rām-Hurmuz lies about 55 miles southeast of Ahwāz, 65 miles south-south-east of S̲h̲ūs̲h̲tar, and 60 miles north-east of Bihbihān. Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 43, reckons it 17 farsak̲h̲ s from Ahwāz to Rām-Hurmuz and 22 farsak̲h̲s from Rām-Hurmuz to Arrad̲j̲ān. Ḳudāma, 194, who gives a more detailed list of stages, counts it 50 farsak̲h̲s from Wāsiṭ to Baṣra, thence 35 farsak̲h̲s to Ahwāz, thence 20 farsak̲h̲s to Rām-Hurmuz, and then 24 farsak̲h̲s …

, a province to the south of the Caspian Sea bounded on the west by Gīlān [ q. v.] and on the east by what was in Ḳad̲j̲ār times the province of Astarābād [ q.v., formerly Gurgān); Māzandarān and Gurgān now form the modern ustān or province of Māzandarān. 1. The name. If Gurgān to the Iranians was the "land of the wolves" ( vәhrkāna , the region to its west was peopled by "Māzaynian dēws" (Bartholomae, Altir . Wörterbuch , col. 1169, under māzainya daēva ). Darmesteter, Le Zend-Avesta , ii, 373, n. 32, thought that Māzandarān was a "comparative of direction" (* Mazana-tara ; c…