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, a district in the north-western part of modern Afg̲h̲ānistan, in the province of Harāt; the name is explained as being derived from the Persian bādk̲h̲īz (“a place where the wind rises”) on account of the strong winds prevailing there. By the geographers of the 4th/10th century only the district to the north-west of Harāt, between this town and Sarak̲h̲s, is called Bādg̲h̲īs. The author of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , probably writing from personal knowledge, describes it as a prosperous and pleasant place of three hundred villages. Later the name…

, ancient Armenian capital, whose ruins lie on the right bank of the Arpa-Čay (called by the Armenians Ak̲h̲uryan) at about 20 miles from the point where that river joins the Araxes. A suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Iranian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaďtis). The site was inhabited in the pre-Christian period, for pagan tombs have been found in the immediate vicinity of the town. As a fortress Ānī is mentioned as early as the 5th century A.D. Its foun…

The word ḳazaḳ in the Turkic language can be first documented in the 8th/14th century in ¶ the meaning “independent; vagabond”. These and similar meanings, such as “free and independent man, vagabond, adventurer, etc.” are known in the modern Turkic languages too. During the turmoils under the Tīmūrids, the word signified the pretenders in contrast to the actual rulers, and also their supporters, who led the life of an adventurer or a robber at the head of their men. At the same time, the word began also to be …

b. hās̲h̲im , of the aristocratic dihḳān family Kāmkāriyān (who had settled near Marw), which boasted of Sāsānian descent, governor of Ḵh̲urāsān. In order to avenge the death of his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and Arabs (in Marw), he had under ʿAmr b. al-Layt̲h̲ stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken prisoner and brought to Sīstān, whence he escaped by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new attempt at a rising in Marw he fled for refuge to th…

, a Mongol prince and ruler of the Golden Horde, grandson of Čingiz-Ḵh̲an and third son of Ḏj̲oči. Little is known of his early career. He took no part in the wars in Russia and Eastern Europe in the years 634-639/1237-1242 but was more frequently in Mongolia than Batu, whom he represented at the enthronement of Güyük (644/1246) and that of Möngke (649/1251). His yurt of appanage was originally situated, according to Rubruck, in the direction of Darband but by 653/1255 had on Batu’s orders been removed to the east of the Volga in order …

, steppe of Western Siberia, situated in the oblast ’ of Novosibirsk of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic, between lat. 54° and 57° North, and bounded on the East and West by the ranges of hills which skirt the banks of the Irti̊s̲h̲ and the Ob’. This steppe, which extends for 117,000 sq. km., has numerous lakes, most of which are sait; the biggest is Lake Čani̊. The ground, which is partly marshland, also has some fertile zones, but it is essentially a cattle-rearing region. It has a cold continental climate. The population (over 500,000 inhabitants in 1949) is unequally d…

, S̲h̲arwān S̲h̲āh , the title in mediaeval Islamic times of the rulers of S̲h̲īrwān [ q.v.] in eastern Transcaucasia. The title very probably dates back to pre-Islamic times. Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 17-18, mentions the S̲h̲īrwān S̲h̲āh as one of the local rulers who received his title from the Sāsānid emperor Ardas̲h̲īr. Al-Balād̲h̲urī mentions the S̲h̲īrwān S̲h̲āh, together with an adjacent potentate, the Layzān S̲h̲āh, as amongst those encountered by the first Arab raiders into the region; he further records that…

, the modern s̲h̲ahr-i sabz (“green town”) on account of the fertility of its surroundings), a town in Özbekistān on what was once the great trade route between Samarḳand and Balk̲h̲. According to Chinese authorities, Kas̲h̲ (Chinese transcription Kʾia-s̲h̲a or Kié-s̲h̲uang-na, also Kʾius̲h̲a, as a town Ki-s̲h̲e) was founded at the beginning of the seventh century A.D.; cf. J. Marquart, Chronologie der alttürkischen Inschriften , Leipzig 1898, 57; Ērānšahr etc., Berlin 1901, 304; E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Toukiue ( Turcs ) occidentaux , St. Petersbu…

, the first of the Ḳutlug̲h̲ Ḵh̲āns of Kirmān. By origin a Ḳara-Ḵh̲itayan he was, according to Ḏj̲uwaynī, brought to Sulṭān Muḥammad Ḵh̲wārazm-S̲h̲āh after the defeat of the Ḳara-Ḵh̲itay on the Talas in 1210 and taken into his service, in which he rose to the rank of ḥād̲j̲ib or Chamberlain. According to Nasawī he had held this same office at the court of the Gür-Ḵh̲an or ruler of the Ḳara-Ḵh̲itay. Being sent on an embassy to Sulṭān Muḥammad he was forcibly detained by the latter until the final collapse of the Ḳara-Ḵh̲…

, usually written Tās̲h̲kend or Tas̲h̲kend in Arabic and Persian manuscripts, a large town in Central Asia, in the oasis of the Čirčik, watered by one of the right bank tributaries of the Si̊r Daryā [ q.v.] or Jaxartes now, since the break-up of the USSR, in the Uzbekistan Republic (lat. 41° 16’ N., long. 69° 13’ E.). 1. History till 1865. Nothing is known of the origin of the settlement on the Čirčik. According to the Greek and Roman sources, there were only nomads on the other side of the Jaxartes. In the earliest Chinese sources (from the 2nd century B.…

The Central Asian Ḵh̲ānate to which Čag̲h̲atay gave his name was really not founded till some decades after the Mongol prince’s death. Čag̲h̲atay was succeeded by his grandson Ḳara-Hülegü, the son of Mö’etüken who fell at Bāmiyān. Ḳara-Hülegü had been designated as Čag̲h̲atay’s heir both by Čingiz-Ḵh̲ān himself and by Ögedey; he was however deposed by the Great Ḵh̲ān Güyük (1241-1248) in favour of Yesü-Möngke, the fifth son of Čag̲h̲atay, with whom Güyük was on terms of personal friendship. In 1…

, Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Ḥayy b. al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd , Persian historian who flourished in the middle of the 5th/11th century. Nothing is known of his life. His nisba shows that he came from Gardīz [ q.v.]; since he says that he received information about Indian festivals from al-Bīrūnī [ q.v.], he may have been his pupil. His work, entitled Zayn al-ak̲h̲bār, was written in the reign of the G̲h̲aznawid Sultan ʿAbd al-Ras̲h̲īd (440/1049-443/1052). It contains a history of the pre-Islamic kings of Persia, of Muḥammad and the Caliphs to the year 423/1032, and a d…

, after the Aral [ q.v.], the largest inland lake of Central Asia (18,432 sq. km.), into which the Ili and several other less important rivers flow. The lake’s existence was unknown to the Arab geographers of the Middle Ages. The anonymous author of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (372/982-983; comp. J. Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge , xxx, makes the Ili (Īlā) flow into the Issi̊ḳ-Ḳul. Of all the Muslim authors, Muḥammad Ḥaydar is the only one, to our knowledge, who, towards the middle of the 10th/16th century ( Taʾrik̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , trans. by E. D. …

, a town on the north bank of the Oxus river [see āmū daryā ] near the mouth of its tributary, the Surk̲h̲ān river (lat. 37° 15’ N., long. 67° 15’ E.), now the town of Termez in the southernmost part of the Uzbekistan Republic. As Samʿānī, who spent 12 days there, testifies, the name was pronounced Tarmīd̲h̲ in the town itself ( K. al-Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābad, iii, 41) which is confirmed by the Chinese Ta-mi (e.g. Hüan Tsang, tr. St. Julien, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, i, 25). Russian officers in 1889 also heard the pronunciation Termiz or Tarmi̊z ( Sbornik materialov po Azii …

(variant: Ḳumiḳ) a people of the eastern Caucasus. The Ḳumuḳs belong to the Ḳipčaḳ Turkic ethnic group, along with the Nog̲h̲ay, Karačay and Balkar. They live north of the main chain of the Great Caucasus, on the northern, north-eastern and eastern slopes of the Dāg̲h̲istānian Caucasus between the foothills and the Caspian Sea, from Derbend to Adz̲h̲i-Su (near the lower Terek River). Although confined to a narrow strip of land in the south, they inhabit a wider area near the Terek in the north. The Ḳumuḳs are bordered by the Nog̲h̲ays in the north, the Avars [ q.v.] and Darg̲h̲ins [ q.v.] in th…

, a district on both sides of the middle course of the Wak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Surk̲h̲āb (Turk. Ḳi̊zi̊l Ṣū), one of the rivers which form the Āmū Daryā, called Rās̲h̲t by the Arab geographers (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih 34, 211 f.; Ibn Rusta, 92 f., 290; Yaʿḳūbī, Buldān , 260). The principal place (or “the fortress”, al-Ḳalʿa , al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, 340) of Rās̲h̲t corresponded as regards its situation perfectly with the modern Garm or Harm, the only town in Ḳaratigin. Rās̲h̲t then formed one of the frontier lands of Islām and was ¶ defended on the east against the inroads of the Turks by a wall built by Faḍl b. Barmak [ q…

al-ḥād̲j̲ib , abū saʿīd (his alleged second name Hārūn which occurs in a single passage of Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, ix, 294, is probably due to an error of the author or of a copyist), Turkish slave, later general of the G̲h̲aznawid Sebuk Tegīn and his two successors and governor of Ḵh̲wārizm. Already under Sebuk Tegīn he attained the highest rank in the bodyguard, that of a "great ḥād̲j̲ib "; under Maḥmūd he commanded the right wing in the great battle against the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids (22 Rabīʿ II 398/4 Jan. 1008, and in 401/1010-1 he is mentioned as governor of Harāt. After the conquest of k̲h̲wārizm in 408/1…

, a Persian historian, wrote in 1233/1818 a short summary of the geographical relations of Central Asiatic countries (Afg̲h̲ānistān, Buk̲h̲ārā, Ḵh̲īwā, Ḵh̲oḳand, Tibet and Kas̲h̲mīr), and of historical events in those countries from 1160 (accession of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Durrānī) down to his own times. ʿAbd al-Karīm had already left his native country in 1222/1807-8 and accompanied an embassy to Constantinople; he remained there till his death, which took place after 1246/1830, and wrote his book for t…

, (T., "holy father") is the old name of the city called since 1938 Ḏj̲ambul after the Ḳazak̲h̲ poet Džambul Džabaev (1846-1945), which lies on the left bank of the Ṭalās in the Ḳazak̲h̲ SSR. Until 1917 it was the capital of the district of the Si̊r Daryā in Russian Turkistān and obtained its name from the grave of the holy man Ḳara Ḵh̲ān (which is mentioned as early as the 17th century; see Maḥmūd b. Walī, Baḥr al-Asrār , MS India Office 545, fol. 1191). His mausoleum dates from the 19th century and bears no inscription. On the other hand the grave of the "little holy one" ( Kičik Awliyā …

, the name of two amīr s of the Sāmānid dynasty of Tranoxania and K̲h̲urāsān. 1. Manṣūr b. Nūḥ I, Abū Ṣaliḥ, ruler of K̲h̲urāsān and Transoxania (350-65/961-76), succeeded his brother ʿAbd al-Malik b. Nūḥ I. Ibn Ḥawḳal is able ¶ to describe the internal conditions of the Sāmānid kingdom under Manṣūr as an eye-witness; cf. especially BGA, ii, 341: fī waḳtinā hād̲h̲ā ; 344 on the character of Manṣūr “the justest king among our contemporaries, in spite of his physical weakness and the slightness of his frame”. On the vizier Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad Balʿamī, see balʿamī , where a…

, a term found in the history and ethnography of the Persian and Central Asian worlds. Originally an old Turkic word for “merchant”, it occurs with this meaning in the 11th-century sources, such as Maḥmūd al-Kāshg̲h̲arī’s encyclopaedic dictionary Dīwān lug̲h̲āt al-Turk ( Compendium of the Turkic dialects, tr. R. Dankoff and J. Kelly, 3 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1982-5, i, 269), and the ¶ Ḳarak̲h̲ānid mirror for princes, Ḳutadgu bilig by Yūsuf K̲h̲āṣṣ Ḥād̲j̲ib (ed. R.R. Arat, Istanbul 1947, i, 571). For references to other editions of both works, see Drevnetyurkskiy slovar’, Leningrad …

(his real name was Muḥammad Ḥaydar; as he himself says, he was known as Mīrzā Ḥaydar; Bābur calls him Ḥaydar Mīrzā), a Persian historian, author of the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , born in 905/1499-1500, died in 958/1551 (for his descent see dūg̲h̲lāt ); through his mother he was a grandson of the Čag̲h̲atāy K̲h̲ān Yūnus and a cousin of Bābur. Most of our knowledge of his life is gleaned from his own work; Bābur (ed. Beveridge, p. 11) devotes a few lines to him; the Indian historians Abu ’l-Faḍl and Firis̲h̲ta give some information about his later years. After the assassination of his father (91…

(in Arabic script bātū ), a Mongol prince, the conqueror of Russia and founder of the Golden Horde (1227-1255), born in the early years of the 13th century, the second son of D̲j̲oči [see d̲j̲ūčī ]. During Čingiz-Ḵh̲ān’s lifetime D̲j̲oči, as his eldest son, had received as his yurt or appanage the territory stretching from the regions of Ḳayalïḳ and Ḵh̲wārazm to Saḳsïn and Bulg̲h̲ār on the Volga “and as far in that direction as the hoof of Tartar horse had penetrated”. The eastern part of this vast area, i.e., Western Siberia, the present-day Kazak̲h̲stān and the lower basin of the …

, Turko-Mongol word for “town” = or “castle” (also written bāliḳ and bālig̲h̲ ); appears frequently in compound names of towns, such as Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ (“Five Towns”, at the present day in ruins at Gučen in Chinese Turkestan), Ḵh̲ānbāliḳ (the “Ḵh̲ān’s Town”), Turko-Mongol name for Pekin (also frequently used by European travellers in the middle ages in forms like (Cambalu), Ilibāliḳ (on the River Ili, the modern Iliysk) etc. As the town of Bās̲h̲bāliḳ is mentioned as early as the Ork̲h̲on i…

, ruler of the Özbegs [see uzbeks ] and founder of the power of this nation, descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son [see s̲h̲aybānids ], born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the hid̲j̲ra 816/1413-4 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter met his death in a revolt; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲ayr was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siber…

, two mountain ranges east of the Caspian Sea, which enclose the dried-out river-bed of the Özboi (cf. Āmū Daryā). To the north of this river lies the Great Balk̲h̲ān, a high plateau of limestone, difficult of access, with steep slopes; the highest elevation is at the Düines̲h̲ Ḳalʿe, about 1880 metres. The Little Balk̲h̲ān, south of the Özboi and cut with numerous ravines, attains (in the west) a height of no more than 800 metres. These mountains, where according to Muḳaddasī, 285, l. 14 ff., w…

, according to Radloff ( Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk-Dialecte , St. Petersburg 1899, ii, 924) “a Turkish tribe in Turkistan”; the same authority gives the Kirgiz (i.e. Ḳazaḳ) word ḳurama (from ḳura , “to sew together pieces of cloth”) with the meaning “a blanket made of pieces of cloth sewn together”. In another passage ( Aus Sibirien 2, Leipzig 1893, i, 225) Radloff himself says that the Kurama are “a mixed people of Özbegs and Kirgiz” and their name comes from the fact, asserted by the Kirgiz, that “they are made up of patches from many tribes” ( kura to “patch…

, Ḳazān , a town on the middle Volga, now the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan in the USSR, and in the 15th and 16th centuries capital of the K̲h̲ānate of the same name. According to legendary accounts, the town was founded by Batu K̲h̲ān in a Turkish and Muslim region which had been part of the ancient kingdom of Bulg̲h̲ār [ q.v.] before the Mongol invasions. The K̲h̲ānate of Ḳāzān was founded in the first half of the 15th century by a Čingizid descendant, Ulu Muḥammad, son of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn and grandson of Toḳtami̊s̲h̲, at the time when the Gold…

, also frequently written bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲h̲ān and sometimes in the literary language (with the Arabic plural inflection) badak̲h̲s̲h̲ānāt , a mountainous region situated on the left bank of the upper reaches of the Āmū-Daryā or more accurately of the Pand̲j̲, the source of this great river; the adjective derived from this noun is Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ānī or Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ī . J. Marquart ( Erāns̲h̲ahr , 279) gives this name the meaning of “region of Bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Balak̲h̲s̲h̲, a type of ruby, which, it is said, is only found in Bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲…

, a town in the aymak of Övör K̲h̲angay in Central Mongolia, now in ruins; in the 7th/13th century it was for a short time the capital of the Mongol World Empire. The fullest accounts of the town are given by the European traveller William of Rubruck and the Persian historian D̲j̲uwaynī [ q.v.]. The ruins were first discovered in 1889 by N. M. Yadrentsey; they were visited and described by the members of the Russian expedition of 1891 led by Radlov; and in 1948-49 an expedition jointly organized by the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People’s Repub…

, a S̲h̲aybānid [ q.v.], the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940/1533-4 (the dragon year 1532-3 is given, probably more accurately, as the year of the cycle) at Āfarīnkent in Miyānkāl (an island between the two arms of the Zarafs̲h̲ān). The father (Iskandar Ḵh̲ān), grandfather (Ḏj̲ānī Beg) and great-grandfather (Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad, son of Abu ‘l-Ḵh̲ayr [ q.v.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935/1528-9) had at the distribution of 918/1512-3 received Karmīna and Miyānkāl; Iskandar …

, the largest river in the Caucasus (according to Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī Ḳazwīnī, 200 farsak̲h̲ s = nearly 800 miles in length). The Ḳur, known as Cyrus to the Greeks; Nahr al-Kurr to the Arabs; Kura to the Russians (said to be derived from a-kuara, “river”, in the Abk̲h̲āzī tongue); and Mtkvari to the Georgians (said to be derived from mdinaré , “river” in the Kartlian dialect), rises in Georgia south of Ardahani (west of Ḳārṣ in the Poso district), and flows northwards to Akhaltzikhé, where it turns east (see map in V. Minorksy, A History of Sharvān and Darband in the 10th-11th centuries, Cambridg…

, a ruler of the Čag̲h̲atay Ḵh̲ānate. A grandson of Mö’etüken, who fell before Bāmiyān, his father, Yesün-To’a, had been banished to China for his part in the conspiracy against the Great Ḵh̲an Möngke. Burāḳ himself began his career at the court of Möngke’s successor, Ḳubilay Ḵh̲an (1260-94). When in March 1266 Mubārak-S̲h̲āh, the son of Ḳara-Hülegü, was elected to the Čag̲h̲atay Ḵh̲ānate, Ḳubilay dispatched Burāḳ to Mā warāʾ al-Nahr with a yarlīg̲h̲ or rescript appointing him co-regent with his cousin. Burāḳ at first concealed the yarlīg̲h̲ and then, having gained the support of…

, a Turkish people, mentioned as early as the oldest Chinese accounts of Central Asia (from the 2nd century A.D.) under the name Kien-Kuen, which according to P. Pelliot ( JA, Ser. 2, vol. xv, 137) goes back to a Mongol word, singular ḳirḳun . The lands of the Kirgiz are not exactly defined in these sources; according to a very reliable source, the land of the Kien-Kuen lay north-west of the land of the K’ang-Kiu, i.e. of Sogdiana. The name Ḳi̊rg̲h̲i̊z first appears in the Ork̲h̲on inscriptions of the 8th century; at…

, older form tāzīk or tāžīk (in Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī, i., 324: Težik), the name of a people originally used with the meaning “Arab” (later this meaning became confined to the form Tāzī), afterwards “Iranian” in contrast to “Turk”. The word is derived from the Arab tribal name of Ṭaiy. The nearest Arab tribe to the Iranians was the Ṭaiy, hence the name of this tribe came to be applied to the whole Arab people. The Ṭaiy are “mentioned as early as the beginning of the third century by an Edessene along with the Saracens as representatives of all the Beduins” (Cureton, Spicil. Syr., p. 16 ult. in Nö…

, also written S̲h̲irwān and S̲h̲arwān (e.g. in Yāḳūt, iii. 282, 7, according to al-Samʿānī, ed. Margoliouth, f. 333a), a district on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, east of the Kura, originally a part of the ancient Albania or the Arrān [q. v.] of the early middle ages. According to Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, p. 192 = Yāḳūt, iii. 317 19, the road from Bard̲h̲aʿa [q. v.] led via S̲h̲īrwān and S̲h̲amāk̲h̲iya (in Yāḳūt: S̲h̲amāk̲h̲ī) to Derbend [q. v.]. The distance between S̲h̲amāk̲h̲iya and “S̲h̲arwān”, according to Iṣṭak…

(usually written Akkerman, Akjerman) is the capital of a district in the Government of Bessarabia. The name signifies “white castle”. In the Middle Ages the place was called Mon Castro, in Polish and Russian authorities Byelgorod (“white city”). It was first in the possession of the Venetians, afterwards of the Genoese. In 1484 it was captured by the Turks. The cossacks took it several times after that, and in 1595 it was destroyed by German troops. By the peace of Bucarest Akkerman along with the rest of Bessarabia was yielded to Russia. (W. Barthold).

, a name for Siberia in the Mongol period; in this form in S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn al-ʿOmarī (cf. Brockelmann, G. A. L., ii. 141), text in W. Tiesenhausen, Sbornih materialov, otnosyas̲h̲čik̲h̲sya k istorii Zolotoi Ordi̊, p. 217 at top; the same source has also Bilād Sibir or al-Sibir (ibid., l. 6 and 221 below). More frequently Ibir-Sibir; e. g. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, Ḏj̲āmiʿ-al-Tawārīk̲h̲, ed. Berezin, in Trudi̊ Vost. Otd. Ark̲h̲-Obs̲h̲č., vii. 168 (Ibīr Sībīr, mentioned in connection with the Ḳīrḳīz people and the river Angara) and the Chinese Yüans̲h̲i ¶ (I-bi-rh Si-bi-rh, quoted in Bretsch…

, a prince of the house of Tīmūr, grandson of its founder. He was 12 years old at the death of his grandfather (S̲h̲aʿbān 807 = February 1405) so he must have been born about 795 (1392-1393) His father ʿOmar S̲h̲aik̲h̲ had predeceased Tīmūr. Baiḳarā is celebrated by Dawlat-S̲h̲āh (ed. Browne, p. 374) for his beauty as a second Joseph and for his courage as a second Rustam; he was prince of Balk̲h̲ for a long period. In the year 817 (1414) he was granted Lūristān, Hamadān, Nihāwand and Burūd̲j̲īr…

, Arabic name for Talas, a river in Central Asia and the town on it probably near the modern Awliyā Atā [q. v.]. The town was of pre-Muḥammadan, presumably Sog̲h̲dian origin [cf. sog̲h̲d]; Sog̲h̲dian and Turkī were spoken in Ṭarāz and in Balāsāg̲h̲ūn [q.v.] as late as the fifth (eleventh) century (Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī, Dīwān Lug̲h̲āt al-Turk, i. 31). As a town ( k̲h̲ōron) Talas is first mentioned in the report of the embassy of the Greek Zēmark̲h̲os ( Fragm. Hist. Greac., iv. 228) in 568. About 630 Talas (Chin. Ta-lo-sse) was described by Hiuen-Thsang as an important commercial town ( Mémoires…

an Uig̲h̲ur word for “castle, palace”, probably borrowed from a native language of Eastern Turkestān and later adopted by the Mongols. The town of Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab or Nasaf [q. v.] has taken its modern name of Kars̲h̲ī from a palace built for the Ḵh̲ān Kabak (1318—1326; see the art. čag̲h̲atāi k̲h̲ān), 2 farsak̲h̲ from the town, all trace of which has long since disappeared. Cf. S̲h̲araf ad-Dīn Yazdī, Ẓafar Nāme, ed. Muḥ. Ilāhdād, Calcutta 1887—1888, i. 111; G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1905, p. 470 sq. (W. Barthold)

, ʿAlā al-Dīn ʿAṭā Malik b. Muḥammed, a Persian governor and historian, author of the Tāʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḏj̲ihān-Kus̲h̲āi; it is from this work that almost all our knowledge of the author (to 654 = 1256) and his ancestors is derived. The family belonged to the village of Āzādwār in the district of Ḏj̲uwain [q. v., N°. 2], ¶ in the western part of Ḵh̲orāsān (it is mentioned as early as the ivth (xth) century and was a day’s journey north of the town of Bahmanabād which still exists under this name, cf. Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, ed. de Goeje, p. 284); according to Ibn al-Ṭiḳṭaḳā ( at-Fak̲h̲rī, ed. Ahlwardt, p. 209) ʿA…

(Arab.) «that which (lies) beyond the river”; the name for the lands conquered by the Arabs and subjected to Islām north of the Amū-Daryā [q. v.]. The frontiers of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr on north and east were where the power of Islām ceased and depended on political conditions; cf. the statements of the Arab geographers on Mā warāʾ al-Nahr in G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1905, p. 433 sq.; W. Barthold, Turkestan (G. M. S., N. S., v., London 1928), p. 64 sqq. The phrase Mā warāʾ al-Nahr passed from Arabic literature into Persian. As late as the ninth (xvth) century, Ḥāfiẓ-…

A Central Asian Turkī word of uncertain etymology (it does not seem to appear in other dialects), which is applied to the predatory raids of Turkish nomads. The importance of this peculiar feature of nomad life as well as the conditions of warfare ( Ḏj̲au) necessitated thereby has been most fully described by W. Radloff ( Aus Sibirien, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893, i. 509 et seq. and Kudatku Bilik, Part i., St. Petersburg, 1891, p. LII et seq.). As long as there was no strong governing authority in the steppes, as long as the force of legal decisions depended only on the perso…

or Derbend-i Āhanīn, Arabic Bāb al-Ḥadīd, Old Turkish Tamir-Ḳapig̲h̲ = “Iron Gate” — a frequently recurring name in the Muḥammadan world for important passes and ravines. The best known is the ravine, about 2 miles long and only 12—20 yards broad, in the Baisun-taw range, through which runs the main road from Samarḳand and Buk̲h̲ārā to Balk̲h̲. This ravine is first mentioned under its Persian name by Yaʿḳūbī (ed. de Goeje, p. 290, 5); Yaʿḳūbī’s statement that a “town” bore this name is not confirmed by …

b. Sahl b. Hās̲h̲im, of the aristocratic Dihḳān family Kāmkāriyān (who had settled near Merw), which boasted of Sāsānian descent, ¶ governor of Ḵh̲orāsān. In order to avenge the death of his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and Arabs (in Merw), he had under ʿAmr b. al-Lait̲h̲) stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken prisoner and brought to Sīstān, whence he escaped by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new attempt of a rising in Merw he fled for refuge to the Sāmānide Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmed in…

(Turkish “warm lake”), the most important mountain lake in Turkistan and one of the largest in the world, situated in 42° 30′ N. Lat. and between 76° 15′ and 78° 30′ E. Long., 5116 feet above sea level; the length of the lake is about 115 miles, the breadth up to 37 miles, the depth up to 1381 feet, and the area 2400 square miles. From the two chains of the Thian-S̲h̲an, the Kungei-Alatau (in the north) and the Terskei-Alatau (in the south) about 80 large and small mountain streams pour into th…

Muḥammad Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh, founder of a dynasty in Ḵh̲wārizm [q. v.]. His father Anūs̲h̲tagīn (or Nūs̲h̲tagīn) G̲h̲arča was in charge of the silver and crockery ( ṭas̲h̲t-k̲h̲āna) at the court of the Sald̲j̲ūḳs; the expenses of this branch of the court household were defrayed out of the tribute from Ḵh̲wārizm just as the expenses of administration of the clothing-depot ( d̲j̲āma-k̲h̲āna) were defrayed by the tribute from Ḵh̲ūzistān; Anūs̲h̲tagīn therefore, without actually governing Ḵh̲wārizm. held the title of a military governor ( s̲h̲ak̲h̲ne) of this country. He had his so…

, a town in Mongolia on the Ork̲h̲on, in the thirteenth century for a short time (about 1230—1260) the capital of the Mongol Emperors, now in ruins. The fullest accounts of the town are given among European travellers by Rubruk (Latin edition in Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires, 1839, iv. 345 sq.; transl. by W. W. Rockhill, Hakluyt Society, 2nd series, especially p. 220 with the translator’s notes) and among Muslim historians by Ḏj̲uwainī [q. v.], Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḏj̲ihān Gus̲h̲āi, ed. Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḳazwīnī, especially i. 169 sq. and 192. The fullest account of the ruins (by the memb…

, the fourth sovereign of the dynasty of the Ḏj̲alāirides (784—813 = 1382—1410) was the fourth son of Sultan Uwais. During the reign of his elder brother Ḥusain he became governor of Baṣra in 776 (1374-1375). In 784 (1382) he raised the banner of insurrection, took possession of the capital, Tibrīz, and had his brother executed. He was not however recognized as sovereign in all parts of the realm until after severe combats with his other brothers (786 = 1384). During the course of the following …