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Aḥmad b. Sahl

(221 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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…

Gardīzī

(328 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Tirmid̲h̲

(1,924 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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

Altūntās̲h̲

(422 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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…

ʿAbd al-Karīm Bukhārī

(142 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Manṣūr b. Nūḥ

(508 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Ḥaydar Mīrzā

(676 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(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…

Bālik

(123 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Abu ’l-K̲h̲ayr

(686 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Ḳurama

(754 words)

Author(s): Barthold, 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…

ʿAbd Allāh b. Iskandar

(830 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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 …

Tād̲j̲īk

(774 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

S̲h̲īrwān

(1,165 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Aḳ Kermān

(97 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(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).

Sibir wa-Ibir

(204 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Bāiḳarā

(360 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Ṭarāz

(454 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Kars̲h̲ī

(94 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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)

Ḏj̲uwainī

(2,497 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Mā Warāʾ al-Nahr

(189 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(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-…

Baranta

(330 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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…

Dar-I Āhanīn

(658 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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 …

Aḥmed

(233 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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…

Issik-Kul

(1,485 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(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…

Ḳuṭb al-Dīn

(284 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
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…

Ḳaraḳorum

(535 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Aḥmed Ḏj̲alāir

(473 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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 …

Azaḳ

(253 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Russian Azow, a town near the mouth of the Don; it is first mentioned in the fourteenth century (after 1316) as a Genoese, then (after 1332) as a Venetian colony under the name of Tana (from the ancient Tanaïs). The Turkish name has appeared on coins since 717 (1317). In the year 797 (1395) the town was destroyed by Tīmūr and taken possession of by the Ottomans in 880 (1475). The Russians (Cossacks) appeared before Azaḳ for the first time in 1589; in 1637 the town was captured and the whole Mu…

Abu ’l-K̲h̲air

(738 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, sovereign of the Özbegs and founder of the power of this nation, a descendant of S̲h̲aiban, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son, born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the Hegira 816 = 1413-1414 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aibān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter found his death in a revolte; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲air was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siberia) at the age of 17…

Ibn Faḍlān

(277 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, properly Aḥmad b. Faḍlān b. al-ʿAbbās b. Rās̲h̲id b. Ḥammād, Arab author, composer of an account ( risāla) of the embassy sent by the Caliph al-Muḳtadir to the king of the Volga Bulg̲h̲ārs [cf. bulg̲h̲ār, i. 786 sqq.]. As he was a client ( mawlā) of the Caliph and of the conqueror of Egypt Muḥammad b. Sulaimān [see Cairo, i. 818a] he was certainly not of Arab origin. He seems to have taken part in the embassy as a theologian and authority on religious matters. The real ambassador appointed by the government was Sūsan al-Rassī, a client of Nud̲h̲air al-Ḥ…

ʿAmr

(419 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
b. al-Lait̲h̲ al-Ṣaffār, the Ṣaffārid; he is said to have been in his youth first a mule-driver, then later a mason, and later to have attached himself to his brother Yaʿḳūb. Proclaimed commander at his death by the latter’s army (265 = 879), ʿAmr submitted to the Caliph and was invested with the provinces of Ḵh̲orāsān, Fārs, Iṣpahān, Sīstān, Karmān and Sind. He only obtained unquestioned mastery of Ḵh̲orāsān after strenuous struggles with his opponents Aḥmed b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḵh̲ud̲j̲ustānī, Rāfiʿ…

Barmakids

(2,878 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(Barmecides), a Persian family, which produced the first Persian ministers of the Caliphate. “Barmak” was not a personal name but denoted the rank of hereditary chief priest in the temple of Nawbahār in Balk̲h̲. The lands belonging to the temple were also in the hands of this family. These estates comprised an area of about 740 square miles (8 farsak̲h̲s long by ¶ 4 broad), or somewhat more than the principalities of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe together. These estates or part of them remained the property of the Barmakids at a later period; Yāḳūt (ii. 942) …

Irtis̲h̲

(527 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
a large river in Siberia, in the basin of the Ob. Its two sources, the Blue and the White Irtis̲h̲, rise in the Great Altai; after their junction the river as far as Lake Zaisan bears the name “Black Irtis̲h̲”; after leaving the lake it flows for about 180 miles through steppe country as the “White” or “Slow Irtis̲h̲”, then for 60 miles with a stronger current as the “Rapid Irtis̲h̲” through a hilly country. At the town of Ustkamenogorsk it enters the Great Siberian plain which sinks away towar…

Ḳuld̲j̲a

(963 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a town in the upper Ili [q. v.] valley. A Muḥammadan kingdom is first mentioned in this region in the viith (xiiith) century: its founder, who is said to have previously been a brigand and horse-thief, is called Ōzār in Ḏj̲uwainī ( G. M. S., xvi., p. 57) and Būzār in Ḏj̲amāl Ḳuras̲h̲ī (in Barthold, Turkestan, i. 135 sq.). According to the latter, he assumed the title of Tog̲h̲rul Ḵh̲ān as ruler. The capital of the kingdom was Almali̊g̲h̲, first mentioned in this connection and later a great and wealthy commercial city. We owe our information about its…

Batman

(244 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, usually written bāṭmān or bātmān, in Ḳirghiz batpan, a Turkī word, applied to a “heavy weight” ( batpandai = “weighing a hundredweight”); it is probably connected with the verbal root bat “to sink” although F. W. K. Müller ( Sitzungsberichte Preuss. Akad., 1907, p. 847) says that the word is Middle Persian and “like many other Iranian words has reached Mongolian through Uigur” (examples are not given). What weight was originally meant by this word, is unknown; at the present day in the Turkī dialects as elsewhere (cf. the European “pound”, the Arabic “ mann” and “ riṭl” etc.), the same wor…

ʿAbd Allāh

(843 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
b. Iskandar, a S̲h̲aibānide, the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940 (1533-1534; the dragon year 1532-1333 is probably more accurately given 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 Muḥammed, son of Abu ’l-Ḵh̲air [s. d.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935 = 1528-1529) had at the distribution of 918 (1512-1513) received Karmī…

Ānī

(2,288 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, an Armenian town, the ruins of which are found on the right bank of the Arpa-Cai (called by the Armenians Ak̲h̲uryan) at a distance of about 20 miles from the point where that river flows into the Araxes. The origin of the name is unknown, though the suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Irānian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaϊtis). It is certain at any rate that the district was inhabited in the pre-christian period, pagan tombs having been found in the imm…

Ḳas̲h̲ḳāi

(539 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a Turkish people in Persia. The name is said to be the Turkish ḳas̲h̲ḳā “horse with a white spot on its forehead” (W. Radloff, Versuch eines Wörter buches der türk. Dialecte, ii. 395). The Ḳas̲h̲ḳāi are said to be descended from the Turkish Ḵh̲alad̲j̲ (cf. also B. G. A., i. 158: Ḵh̲ald̲j̲) mentioned by al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī ( B. G. A., vol. i.) and later writers in the country between India and Slstān. The Ḵh̲alad̲j̲ are said to have migrated first to the Persian ʿIrāḳ where a district near Sāwa is still called Ḵh̲alad̲j̲istān; there is still said to be a Turkish speaking people there ¶ (private informa…

K̲h̲alīl Sulṭān

(596 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a ruler of the Tīmūrid dynasty, grandson of Tīmūr, son of Mīrān-s̲h̲āh and Suyūn-beg Ḵh̲ānzāda, grand-daughter of the Ḵh̲ān of the Golden Horde, Özbeg; born in 786 ¶ (1384), died Wednesday, Rad̲j̲ab 16, 814 (Nov. 4, 1411), reigned in Samarḳand 807—812 (1405—1409). His education was entrusted to Tīmūr’s eldest wife, Sarāi Mulk Ḵh̲ānum. He is said to have distinguished himself on Tīmūr’s India campaign (1399) when only 15 years of age; he also took part in the so-called “Seven Years” (actually only 802—807=1399—1404) war i…

Buk̲h̲ārā

(7,919 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a city in Turkestān, on the lower course of the Zarafs̲h̲ān. We have only the scantiest notices of the history of the city in pre-Muḥammadan times. There can be little doubt, however, that the Iranians had settlements and even towns on the Zarafs̲h̲ān at a very early period; even in the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon there was another town in Sogdiana besides Matakanda (Samarḳand) on the lower course of the river; but whether this town corresponded to the modern Buk̲h̲ārā may be questi…

Altūntās̲h̲

(414 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
al-Ḥād̲j̲ib (Abū Saʿid; his alleged second name Hārūn is only mentioned in one passage by Ibn al-At̲h̲īr (ed. Tornb., ix. 294), probably as the result of an oversig̲h̲t of the ¶ author or of a copyist), was a Turkish slave, later general to the G̲h̲aznawid Sebuk-Tegīn and to his two successors. Even while under Sebuk-Tegīn he attained the highest rank in the bodyguard of his sovereign, that of a “Great Ḥād̲j̲ib”; under Maḥmūd be commanded the right wing in the great battle against the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids (22 Rabīʿ II 398 = 4 Jan. …

Kāt̲h̲

(563 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, the ancient capital of Ḵh̲wārizm, the modern Ḵh̲īva; according to Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am, ed. Wüstenfeld, iv. 222, the name meant a wall ( ḥāʾiṭ) in the desert in the language of the Ḵh̲wārizmīs, even if there were no buildings within this. The fullest accounts of the old town and citadel of Fīl or Fīr, which was gradually washed away by the Āmū-Daryā (the last traces of it are said to have disappeared in 384 = 994), are given in al-Bīrūnī’s [q.v.] Kitāb al-Āt̲h̲ār al-Bāḳiya, p. 35, on which E. Sachau based his Zur Geschichte una Chronologie von Ḵh̲wārizm ( Sitzungsber. der phil. hist. Cl. d. K.K…

Ti̇rmid̲h̲

(1,960 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a town on the north bank of the Āmū Daryā [q. v.] near the mouth of the Surk̲h̲ān. As Samʿānī, who spent 12 days there, testifies, the name was pronounced Tarmīd̲h̲ in the town itself ( G. M. S., xx., fol. 105b) which is confirmed by the Chinese Ta-mi (e. g. Hiouen Thsang, Mémoires sur Its contrées occidentales, I, 25). Russian officers in 1889 also heard the pronunciation Termiz or Tarmi̊z ( Sbornik materialov po Azii, lvii. 393 and 399). The town is now officially known as Termez. Tirmid̲h̲ does not seem to have been touched by Alexander the Great and is not mentioned in antiqui…

Burāḳ-K̲h̲ān

(1,413 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a Mongol prince in Central Asia, great-grandson of Čag̲h̲atāi [q. v.] grandson of the Mütügen who had fallen at Bāmiyān in 1221 [see above, p. 644]. His father Yisūn-Tuwa had taken part in the events of the year 1251 [cf. the article bātū k̲h̲ān, p. 681] and shared the fate of the other rebellious princes. Like the rest of the children of Čag̲h̲atāi and Ügedei, Burāḳ and his brothers were educated in Mongolia; some years after the accession of the Great Ḵh̲ān Ḵh̲ubilāi (1260—1294) they received permission to return to their home and to …

Sart

(991 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, originally an old Turkish word for “merchant”: it is used with this meaning in the Ḳuḍatḳu-Bilik (quotations in Radloff, Versuch eines Wörtcrbuches der Türk. Dialecte, iv. 335) and by Maḥmūd Kas̲h̲g̲h̲ārī (e. g. i. 286). In the Uighur translation (from the Chinese, of the Saddharma puṇḍarīḳa the Sanskrit word sārthavāha or sārthalūha “caravan-leader” is translated sartpau; this word is explained as the “senior merchant” sati̊ḳči̊ uludg̲h̲i). Radloff therefore concludes that Turk, sart is an Indian loan-word ( Kuan-si-in Pusar, Bibl. Buddh, St. Petersburg 1911, xiv. p. 37).…

Ḳaplān Girāy

(296 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, the name of two Ḵh̲āns of the Crimea in the eighteenth century. 1. Ḳaplān Girāy I reigned three times: 1119—1120 (1707—1708), 1125—1128 (1713—1716) and 1143—1149 (1730—36). He died on the island of Chios in S̲h̲aʿbān, 1151 (Nov.-Dec, 1738). Immediately after the death of his father Salīm I, in S̲h̲aʿbān, 1116 (Nov.-Dec., 1704), he set up as a claimant to the throne but was not proclaimed Ḵh̲ān till after the death of his brother G̲h̲āzī III. His own three depositions were on each occasion the result of the u…

Ṣīn-i Kalān

(146 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(literally Great China), Arabic and Persian name (the Arabic ṣīn is of course for the Persian čīn) for the seaport of Canton in the Mongol period; it is known especially from the travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa [q. v.] (ed. Defrémery and Sanguinetti, iv. 271 sq.) but is used by other Muslim (Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, Waṣṣāf) and also by Western writers (Odoric de Pordenone, Marignolli, also in the Cartu Catalana; cf. the quotations in Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, London 1866, p. 105, and Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Tawārīk̲h̲, ed. Blochet, 1911, p. 493). For Ṣīn-i Kalān Ibn Baṭṭūṭa also has Ṣ…

Čūpān-Atā

(531 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(Turḳ, “father-herdsman”), a ridge of hills on the south bank of the Zarafs̲h̲ān near Samarḳand. The modern name is apparently connected with the legend given in the Kitāb-i Ḳandīya. Samarḳand is said to have been attacked by a hostile force over a 1000 years before Muḥammad; the inhabitants prayed to God and his prophets for help; when they awoke on the following morning, nota trace was left of the enemy’s army, but before the city was a mountain which no had seen before and on it a shepherd was grazing his sheep. It appe…

Kur

(306 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Russian Kura, in the Arab geographers Kurr, the largest river in the Caucasus, over 600 miles in length, according to Ḥamd Allāh Ḳazwīnī ( Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, G.M.S., XXIII/i., p. 218) 200 farsak̲h̲. Iṣṭak̲h̲rī ( B.G.A., i. 189) describes the Kur as navigable and full of fish; even at the present day very little would require to be done to make the river accessible to modern steamers from Mingečaur (a little below the mouth of the Alazan) to the Caspian Sea. The Araxes, regarded as a separate river in ancient times, always appears…

K̲h̲uttal

(922 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a district on the upper course of Āmū-Daryā between the rivers Pand̲j̲ and Wak̲h̲s̲h̲, called Ḏj̲aryāb and Wak̲h̲s̲h̲āb in the middle ages; on the situation cf. also i., p. 339 sq. The pronunciation Ḵh̲uttal is given by Yāḳūt ( Muʿd̲j̲am, ii. 402); for the frequently used plural form we have evidence for the pronunciation Ḵh̲uttalān in the lampoon preserved by Ṭabarī (ii. 1492, 1494 and 1602) on the reverses suffered by the governor Asad b. ʿAbd Allāh (d. 120 = 738). On the other hand in later Persian poetry the pronunciation Ḵh̲atl…

Ḳubilai

(345 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(usually written Ḳūbīlāi but also “Ḳublāi”), Mongol emperor (1260—1294), brother and successor of Ḵh̲ān Möngke. He was probably born in 1214; when Čingiz Ḵh̲ān returned in 1225 to Mongolia from his campaign in Western Asia, Ḳubilai, who was then eleven years old, had just gained his first trophy of the chase; after the Mongol fashion, Čingiz Ḵh̲ān himself smeared his thumb wilh flesh and fat (Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Berezin, Trudi̊ Vost. Otd. Ark̲h̲. Obs̲h̲č., xv. 141, text). In the reign of his brother he was governor of China from 1251 and devoted himself to the conqu…

Sog̲h̲d

(864 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, al-Sog̲h̲d or al-Ṣog̲h̲d, a district in Central Asia. The same name (Old. Pers. Suguda, late Avestan Sug̲h̲da, Greek Sogdioi or Sogdianoi [the people] and Sogdiane [the country]) was applied in ancient times to a people of Īrānian origin subject to the Persians (at least from the time of Darius I, 522—486 b. c.) whose lands stretched from the Oxus (cf. āmū-daryā) to the Yaxartes (cf. si̊r-daryā), according to the Greek sources. The language and especially the terms relating to the calendar and festivals of the Sog̲h̲dian Zoroastrians are very fully dealt wit…

ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ

(303 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
Kamāl al-Dīn b. Isḥāḳ al-Samarḳandī, a Persian historian, author of the well-known Maṭlaʿ al-saʿdain wa-mad̲j̲maʿ al-baḥrain, born at Herāt in 816 (1413), where he died in 887 (1482). His father was ḳāḍī and Imām at the court of Sultan S̲h̲āhruk̲h̲ [q. v.]. In 845 (1441) ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ went to India as an ambassador (returned in 848 = 1444), and in 850 (1446) to Gīlān; he died in the reign of the sultan Ḥusain Baiḳarā [q. v.] as governor of the Ḵh̲ānḳāh of S̲h̲āhruk̲h̲. His work depicts, with a ¶ brief mention of the birth (704 = 1304-1305) and accession (716 = 1316-1317) of the Īl…

Bābā Beg

(627 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, an Uzbeg chief of the family of the Keneges, was till 1870 prince of S̲h̲ahrisabz and had taken part, in the summer of 1868, in the siege of the citadel of Samarḳand then held by the Russians. In the summer of 1870 S̲h̲ahrisabz was conquered by the Russians under General Abromow. Bābā Beg had to flee with a small body of those faithful to him, first to the upper valley of the Zarafs̲h̲ān then to Farg̲h̲āna where he was seized by order of Ḵh̲ān Ḵh̲udāyār and handed over to the Russians. An annu…

Čag̲h̲āniyān

(906 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, written Ṣag̲h̲āniyān by the Arabs, a district on the upper course of the Oxus; the capital of the district bore the same name, whence the nisbas Čag̲h̲āniyānï and Čag̲h̲ānī; the name of the river Čag̲h̲ānrūd (the modern Surk̲h̲an), which flows through Čag̲h̲āniyān, and the title Čag̲h̲ān-Ḵh̲ud̲h̲āt of the ruler of the land are of course derived from the same root. On the geography, cf. the article āmū-daryā, p. 339. The capital Čag̲h̲āniyān was four days’ journey or 24 farsak̲h̲ from Tirmid̲h̲ and three days’ journey from Kuwādiyān (the modern Kabadian). The town has bee…

Kas̲h̲

(608 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, the modern S̲h̲ahr-i Sabz (“green town”, on account of the fertility of its surroundings) a town in Buk̲h̲ārā on what was once the great trade route between Samarḳand and Balk̲h̲. According to Chinese authorities, Kas̲h̲ (Chinese transcription K’ia-s̲h̲a or Kié-s̲h̲uang-na, also K’ius̲h̲a, as a town Ki’-s̲h̲e) was founded at the beginning of the seventh century a. d.; cf. J. Marquart, Chronologie der alttürkisehen Inschriften, Leipzig 1898, p. 57; Ērānšahr etc., Berlin 1901, p. 304; E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Toukiue (Turcs) occidentaux, St. Petersburg 1903, p. 146. Yā…

Balāsāg̲h̲ūn

(1,279 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a town in Central Asia, whose situation cannot now be exactly determined. In Muḳaddasī (ed. de Goeje, pp. 264 and 275) Balāsakūn (sic) or Walāsakūn is mentioned among the towns dependent on Asbid̲j̲āb (the modern Sairam, east of Čimkent). According to Yāḳūt, i. 708 Balāsāg̲h̲ūn lay “on the other side of the Saiḥūn (Sir Daryā) not far from Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar”; on the other hand Yāḳūt, iii. 833, says that the town of Fārāb (the modern ruined site of Otrar), not far from the confluence of the Aris and …

Ḏj̲uwainī

(771 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Muḥammad, brother of the preceding, a Persian statesman; as Ṣāḥib-Dīwān, he was at the head of the administration of Persia under Mongol rule in the reigns of Hūlāgū (to 1265), Abāḳā (1265— 1282) and Aḥmad (1282—1284); according to Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn (ed. Quatremère, p. 392 et seq., 402), he was appointed to the office in 661 = 1262-1263. It is not known whether he was older or younger than his brother; nor do we know anything of his career before the year 661; he is not mentioned by his brother. In 677 = 1278 he was …

Gaik̲h̲ātū

(456 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a Mongol prince ( īlk̲h̲ān) of Persia (690—694 = 1291—1295), brother and successor of Arg̲h̲ūn (q.v., i. 430b et seq.); he received the name Īrand̲j̲īn Dūrd̲j̲ī (in Waṣṣāf Tūrd̲j̲ī) “most precious jewel”, which he bears on his coins, after his accession from his Buddhist priests (according to Waṣṣāf from Chinese); the same name was, according to Waṣṣāf, also placed on the currency notes issued in Gaik̲h̲ātū’s reign. Before his accession he was governor of Asia Minor. Muslims were particularly favoured in his reig…

Baraba

(430 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a steppe in Western Siberia, between 52° and 57° N. lat., is bounded on the west and east by the ranges of hills on the banks of the Irtis̲h̲, and Ob (Obi). The largest of the numerous salt lakes of this steppe is the Čani. The ground is as a rule marshy, so that traffic is rendered very difficult in the wet season, but not generally unfertile; the Russian villages on the border districts of the steppe are described as being particularly prosperous. The native Tatar (Turkish) population is called Barabintsi by the ¶ Russians; in the xviith century they were driven into the unfertile parts …

Ḳučan

(522 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a town in Persia, in the northern part of the province of Ḵh̲orāsān [q. v.] on the upper course of the Atrek [q. v.], perhaps the ancient As̲h̲ak or Arsaka, in the older Arab geographers Ḵh̲abūs̲h̲ān, later Ḵh̲ūd̲j̲ān, e.g. Muḳaddasī, B.G.A., iii. 319, 3 and Baihaḳī, ed. Morley, p. 761; also Yāḳūt under Ustuwā (i. 243, 20) according to Samʿānī ( G.M.S., xx., f. 31a); according to Yāḳūt, ii. 487, 21, the usual local pronunciation was Ḵh̲ūs̲h̲ān; Samʿānī, f. 211a, here also has only the form Ḵh̲ūd̲j̲ān (Samʿānī had himself been there). The origin of the pronunciation Ḳučan …

K̲h̲alk̲h̲a

(406 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, the name of a lake and of a river flowing from it into the Buyir-Nor on the frontier between Manchuria and Mongolia. The river Ḵh̲alk̲h̲a is mentioned in the xiiith century in the “Secret History of the Mongols” (Russian translation by Palladius in Trudi̊ Ross, Duk̲h̲ovnoi Missii v Pekinie, iv., St. Petersburg 1866, p. 90, 91, 102 and 118 (the edition of the text promised by Pelliot has not yet appeared); in Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Berezin, in Trudi̊ Vost. Otd. Russkago Ark̲h̲. Obs̲h̲č., xiii., St. Petersburg 1868, Pers. text, p. 216, vol. xv., ibid. 1889, Pers. text, p. 3 sq.: Ṛalā. Since the xvit…

Arslān-k̲h̲ān

(393 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Muḥammad b. Sulaimān, Ḳarak̲h̲ānid, Prince of Transoxania. His father Sulaimān-Tegīn, grandson of the “great” Tamg̲h̲ās̲h̲-Ḵh̲ān Ibrahīm, had governed the country for a short time about 490 (1097) as vassal of the Sultan Barkiyāruḳ. On the conquest of Transoxania by Ḳadr-Ḵh̲ān Ḏj̲ibraʾîl of Turkistān the young Prince Muḥammad fled to Ḵh̲orāsān; after this Ḳarāk̲h̲ānid had been defeated by the Sultan Sand̲j̲ar the Prince was appointed ruler in Samarḳand with the title Arslān-Ḵh̲ān (495 = 1102); hi…

Abk̲h̲āz

(1,387 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a tribe of West Caucasia, on the Black Sea. The country of Abk̲h̲āzia comprises the region extending from the main ridge of the Caucasus to the sea-coast, between Gagry in the north and the mouth of the Ingur in the south. Before the union with Russia it was divided politically into three parts: 1) Abk̲h̲āzia proper, on the coast from Gagry to the Galidzga under the princely family of S̲h̲erwas̲h̲idze; 2) the Highlands of Tzebelda (without any centralized government); 3) the country of Samurza…

Ḳarategin

(1,131 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a district on the Wak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Surk̲h̲āb (Turk. Ḳizil Ṣū), one of the rivers which form the Āmū Daryā, called Rās̲h̲t by the Arab geographers [cf. i. 339]. The principal place (or “the fortress”, al-Ḳalʿa, al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, p. 340) of Rās̲h̲t corresponded as regards its situation perfectly with the modern Garm, the only town in Ḳarategin. 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 [on him cf. i. 665, ii. 37]. In ancient tim…

Banākitī

(319 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn Abū Sulaimān Dāwud b. Muḥammad, Persian poet and historian (died 730 = 1329-1330). According to his own statement he was appointed “king of poets” ( malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ by G̲h̲āzān-Ḵh̲ān, Mongol ruler of Persia, in the year 701 (1301-1302); one of his poems is given by Dawlats̲h̲āh (ed. Browne, p. 227). His history bears the title Rawḍat ūli ’l-albāb fī tawārīk̲h̲ al-akābir wa ’l-ansāb and was composed in 717 (1317-1318) in the reign of Ḵh̲ān Abū Saʿīd [q. v., p. 103]; the preface is dated 25th S̲h̲awwāl of this year (31st Dec. 1317). With the exception of some short n…

Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar

(980 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a town in Chinese Turkestān, called Su-le in the oldest Chinese sources; the same name is still used in Chinese official documents. The name Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar first appears in Chinese transcription (K’iu-cha) in the T’ang-s̲h̲u; cf. E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux,St. Petersburg 1903, p. 121 sq. On the pre-Muḥammadan Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar and the ruins of Buddhist buildings in the vicinity see A. Stein, Ancient Khotan, Oxford 1907, i. 52 sq.; do., Serindia, Oxford 1921, p. 80 sq. Arab armies did not reach Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar; the story of Ḳutaiba’s campaign in 9…

As̲h̲ḳabad

(124 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, properly ʿIs̲h̲ḳâbād ( ʿAs̲h̲ḳ,Turk. form of the Arab.-Pers. ʿIs̲h̲ḳ, “love”), Russ. Ask̲h̲abad, capital of the Trans-Caspian region; 19, 428 inhabitants (1897); first became a township under the Russian regime; previous to 1881 was the most important Turkoman-Aul (500 tents) in the district of Ak̲h̲al-Tekke [q. v.]. The town possesses a museum (contains also ethnological exhibits of the Turkomans) and a public library (possesses also some Persian Mss.). Some 4-5 mls. to the West are the ruins of the t…

Ḳazān

(1,389 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, also written Ḳāzān, in the xvth and xvith centuries the capital of a Tatar principality, in the xixth century a Russian university town, now capital of the Tatar Soviet Republic. According to legend, the town was built by Bātū. In 1391 Ḳazān was destroyed by Russian freebooters from Novgorod, and again in 1399 by the Prince Ywriy Dmitriyewič. About 1445 a powerful kingdom was founded here by Ulu-Muḥammad and his son Maḥmūdek (in Russian works Mak̲h̲mutek) who had been banished from the Golden Horde; in the same…

Bāg̲h̲če Sarāi

(1,102 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(Turkish “Garden palace”) Russian Bachčisirai, a Tatar town on the Crimean peninsula in the district of Taurus 20 miles from Simferopol, the capital of the district and about the same distance from the sea shore. The town lies in the narrow valley of the Čirik-Ṣu, according to Pallas “Dschuruk Su” = stinking water; the ravine of Salačik runs in an easterly direction to the mountain fortress now called Čufut-Ḳalʿa (“the fort of the Jews”), the oldest settlement in the neighbourhood of Bāg̲h̲če Sarāi. This was the ¶ chief settlement of the Jews (Karaeans) in the Crimea during the T…

Abāḳā

(582 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, second Mongol (Ilk̲h̲ān) prince of Persia (1265—1282), born in Mongolia in March 1234. He came to Persia with his father Hūlāgū [q. v.] in 1256, and, after the death of the latter, was elected as prince by the representatives of this dynasty; five years later, the great k̲h̲ān Ḵh̲ubilai confirmed his election. The struggle with the Mamlūks of Egypt, begun by Hūlāgū, was continued by Abāḳā, but unsuccessfully, although the Mongols of Kipčāk, who had formerly been allied with the Mamlūks, had at…

Ilek-K̲h̲āns

(652 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a Turkish dynasty in Central Asia, iv.th—vii.th (x.th—xii.th)centuries. From this house which ruled the lands north and south of the Thian-S̲h̲an came the first Turkish conquerors of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr in the Muslim period; the first monument of Muslim literature in Turkish, the Ḳudatḳu-Bilik or Ḳutadg̲h̲u Bilik, was written about 462 = 1069-1070 for a prince of this dynasty. In Persian histories the dynasty is usually called “family ( āl) of Afrāsiyāb (q. v., i. 175b) sometimes also “Ḵh̲āns of Turkistān”, the name “Īlek princes” or “Īlek-Ḵh̲āns” was introduced by Europ…

Īs̲h̲ān

(233 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Persian pronoun 3rd pers. plur. The word is used in Turkestan in the meaning of s̲h̲aik̲h̲, murs̲h̲id, ustād̲h̲, pīr, teacher, guide [see derwīsh i. 950a], in contrast to murīd, adherent, pupil. When the term first appears has still to be investigated; it certainly existed in the middle ages; the celebrated Ḵh̲od̲j̲a Aḥrār (died 895 = 1490 in Samarḳand) is always called īs̲h̲ān in his biography. The rank of īs̲h̲ān is frequently transmitted from father to son. The īs̲h̲ān lives with his followers in a dervish monastery ( k̲h̲ānḳāh, in Central Asia pronounced k̲h̲ānaka), sometimes also…

Abū Muslim

(808 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, properly ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muslim (so also on his coins, but according to other statements he assumed this name much later), general, and powerful chief, leader of the religious and political mouvement in Ḵh̲orāsān, through which the Umaiyads were over-thrown and the ʿAbbāsides attained the throne. Abū Muslim was of Persian origin, probably a native of Iṣpahān (his native place is variously given in different sources), and in Kūfa he had attached himself to the ʿAbbāside Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammed. ¶ In the year 128 (745-746), being then according to Ibn al-At̲h̲īr (ed. Tornb., …

G̲h̲ud̲j̲duwān

(196 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a large “village likea town” (according to the Ras̲h̲aḥāt ʿAin al-Ḥayāt of ʿAli b. Ḥusain al-Kās̲h̲ifī, MS. of the University of St. Petersburg, Or. 293, f. 12a) six farsak̲h̲ from Buk̲h̲ārā, the birthplace of the saint ʿAbd al-Ḵh̲āliḳ G̲h̲ud̲j̲duwānī (vith = xiith century) is mentioned at quite an early date by Nars̲h̲ak̲h̲ī (ed. Schefer, p. 66 at the foot) in his account of Muḳannaʿ (second = viiith century) and probably dates from the pre-Muslim period. In the vith = xiith century there was a much frequented weekly market there (cf. the text of Samʿānī in Barthold, Turkestan v epok̲h̲u…

Takas̲h̲

(549 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(Turkish pronunciation: Tekes̲h̲) b. īl-Arslān, king of Ḵh̲warizm [q. v.] 567—596 (1172—1200), of the fourth and most glorious dynasty of Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āhs [q. v.], was, before his accession governor of Ḏj̲and on the lower course of the Si̊r-Daryā [q. v.]; he had to fight for his throne with his younger brother Sulṭān S̲h̲āh, and in the struggle at first Takas̲h̲ and then his brother received the support of the Ḳara-Ḵh̲itai [q. v.]. When the fight was finally decided in favour of Takas̲h̲, Sulṭān S̲h̲āh succeeded with the help of the Ḳara Ḵh̲itai in establishing him…

Abu’ l-Ḥasan

(297 words)

Author(s): BARTHOLD, W.
(or Abu ’l-Ḥusain) Muḥammed b. Ibrāhīm b. Sīmd̲j̲ūr, hereditary vassal prince of Kūhistān; under three Sāmānide princes: ʿAbd al-Malik I, Manṣūr I and Nūḥ II, he was three times governor of Ḵh̲orāsān in the years 347—349, 35°—371, 376—378 (958— 960, 962—982, 986—989). During his second governorship of 20 years’ duration he practically enjoyed the esteem of an independent prince and obeyed the Sāmānides „only as far as pleased him." On the accession of Nūḥ II (365 = 976) he was overwhelmed with the high…

Īl-K̲h̲āns

(481 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Mongol dynasty in Persia, vii.th-viii.th (xiii.th-xiv.th) century. On the foundation of the kingdom and the meaning of the title of its rulers see the article hūlāgū (ii. 332b sq.); on the later rulers see the articles abāḳā (i. 4), Arg̲h̲ūn (i. 430a), gaik̲h̲ātū (ii. 128), bāidū (i. 591), g̲h̲āzān (ii. 149b sq.) and abū saʿīd (i. 103b sq.). With the death of the latter on Rabīʿ II 736 (Nov. 30 1335), the main branch became extinct in the male line; till 754 = 1353-1354, several princes, mainly from branch lines and even a princess, Sātī-Beg, sister …

K̲h̲wārizm

(4,435 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
or Ḵh̲īwa, a country on the lower course of the Amū-Daryā [q. v.]. Being a fertile delta area, Ḵh̲wārizm must from the earliest times have been of importance for the development of civilisation in Central Asia; in spite of the objections made by Nöldeke ( Z. D. M. G., lvi. 434 sq.), J. Marquart’s view ( Ērānšahr, Berlin 1901, p. 155) that “the much contested Airyanemwaed̲j̲ō, the home of the Awestā, is identical with Ḵh̲wārizm”, has much in its favour. According to Herodotos (iii. 117), the valley of the river Akes, which was of international importance, before Persian rule belonged to the Ḵh̲wā…

Balaklava

(622 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(Balaclava), Tatar Bāliḳlava, a small seaport town in the southwest of the Crimean peninsula (Government of Taurus), 8 miles from Sebastopol. The town is mentioned as early as Strabo (Chap. 312) under the name of Palakion and is said to have received this name from Palakos, the son of the Scythian prince Skiluros (second or first century B. C.). There are only popular etymologies in explanation of the name at the present day: 1. Turk, baliḳ “fish” + Greek λαβά or λαβή “catching”; 2. Ital. bella chiave “beautiful spring”. The town lies on a bay which is called by Strabo (Ch. 308) …

Ak̲h̲alčik̲h̲

(100 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Russian Ak̲h̲altsik̲h̲, Turkish Ak̲h̲isḳa or Ak̲h̲isk̲h̲a, nowadays the capital of a district of the government of Tiflis, was originally a Georgian fortress (the name means in Georgian “new fortress”). In the year 1045 (1635) it was taken by the Ottomans after a siege of 23 days and is later on mentioned as the chief town of a separate Wilāyet. After having been taken by the Russians in 1828, the fortress had to be yielded to Russia at the peace of Adrianople (1829). About Ak̲h̲alčik̲h̲ under Turkish government comp. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa, Ḏj̲ihān-numā p. 408 et seq. (W. Barthold)

Ak̲h̲sīkat̲h̲

(157 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
was in the 4th (10th) century the capital of Farg̲h̲āna; under Bābār it was the second of the large towns and was then called Ak̲h̲sī; still in the 11th (17th) century the present capital Namangān is spoken of in the Baḥr al-asrār (Ethé, India Office no. 575, fo. 108b as one of the less important sisters ( tawābiʿ) of Ak̲h̲sī. According to Bābar, Ak̲h̲sīkat̲h̲ was situated on the right bank of tie river Sir, near the place where the Kāsan-Sai joins it. At present there still exist (near the villages Ak̲h̲sī and S̲h̲āhand) the ruins of the old citadel …

Bāliḳ

(117 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Turkī-Mongol word for “town” (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 (also frequently used by European travellers in the middle ages as a name of Pekin (Cambalu)), Ilibāliḳ (on the River Ili, the modern Ilijsk) amongst others. As the town of Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ is mentioned as early as the Orkhon inscriptions (viiith century a. d.), Bāliḳ, in the meaning of town, is one of the oldest of Turkī wor…

K̲h̲otan

(945 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
a town in Chinese Turkestān. In the oldest Chinese records (from the 2nd cent. a. d.) the town is called Yu-tien for Yotḳan; this is the name still given to the ruins of the pre-Muḥammadan town, the most eastern part of which lies 5 miles west of the modern town. Later the name is written K’iu-tan and Ho-tan (cf. E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Toukine [ Turcs] occidentaux, St. Petersburg 1903, p. 125). The Indian name Kustana or Kustanaka “breast of the earth” in Chinese transcription Kiu-sa-tan-na is explained by Sir Aurel Stein, Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, 1903, p. 402, as a learned et…

Altai

(191 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a mountain system in the region where the Ob and the Irtis̲h̲ take their source. The oldest Turkish name for the southern Altai is Altin-Yis̲h̲ (“gold-mountains”; so in the Orchon inscriptions), in Chinese Kin-s̲h̲an; the same mountain-chain is occasionally denoted in scientific geography by the name of Ektag (evidently Ak-Tag̲h̲ “white mountain”) which arose from Greek traveller’s reports in the 6th century a. d., but according to later investigations the mountain-range mentioned by the Greeks must be sought not in the Altai, but in the Thien-s̲h̲an (E. Chavannes, Documents sur l…

Alp-tegīn

(352 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
was the founder of the dominion of the G̲h̲aznawides. Like most of the praetorians of his time, he was enrolled as a purchased Turkish slave in the bodyguard of the Sāmānides and gradually rose to the dignity of “Ḥād̲j̲ib of the Ḥād̲j̲ibs” (the chief-officer of the bodyguard). It was in this position that he appeared as the real ruler during the reign of the youthful ʿAbd al-Malik I [q. v.]; through his influence Abū ʿAlī al-Balʿamī was appointed Wezīr and was not permitted to do anything “with…

Tekuder

(214 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(the name is also written Tagudar and Teguder in learned works), as a Muslim called Aḥmad (e. g. on his coins with inscriptions in the Mongol alphabet and language), a Mongol ruler (Īlk̲h̲ān, q.v.) of Persia, 681—683 = 1282—1284. On his brother and predecessor see abāḳā, on his fall and successor see arg̲h̲ūn. Tekuder is said to have been baptised in his youth with the name Nicolas ( Moshemii Historia Tartarorum Ecclesiastica, Helmstedt 1741, p. 71). Immediately after his accession, his conversion to Islām was announced. According to some sources he turned churches…

Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ḳum

(221 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(t. “Red Sand”), a desert between the Si̊r-Daryā and the Āmū-Daryā, cf. above, p. 741, ḳarā-ḳum. The country is less uniform, especially in the central part, than in the Ḳarā-Ḳum; the desert is crossed by several ranges of hills. The Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ḳum becomes more and more inhospitable as one goes southwards. The region called Adam-Ḳi̊ri̊lg̲h̲an (“where man perishes”) between the Āmū-Daryā and the cultivated region of Buk̲h̲ārā consisting of sandhills ( bark̲h̲ān) is considered especially uninviting and dangerous. In the summer there is absolutely no life in the desert,…

Alma

(40 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a small river in the Crimea, south of Simferopol, is only known through the battle of September 20/8., 1854 (victory of the allied armies of the French, English and Turks over the Russians under Mens̲h̲ikow). (W. Barthold).

S̲h̲īrwāns̲h̲āh

(1,889 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a title of the rulers of S̲h̲īrwān, probably dating from the pre-Muḥammadan period (Baladitnrf, p. 196 infra). In the history of the conquest this ruler is called simply king ( malik) or lord ( ṣāḥib) of S̲h̲īrwān (ibid., 204 and 209). Yazīd b. Usaid al-Sulamī, governor of Armenia under the Caliph Manṣūr, took possession of the naphtha-wells ( naffāṭa) and saltworks of S̲h̲īrwān ( mallāḥāt); the eastern part of the land was therefore at that date of greater importance than the western (cf. what is said above on S̲h̲āberān as the capital of S̲h̲īrwān). The t…

Aḳ Ṣu

(343 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(t.), “white water”, is very often used as the name of a river in the countries where Turkish is spoken. When a canal is made to branch off from a river, that part of the water which flows on along the original bed is as a rule called Aḳ Ṣu or Aḳ Daryā, and the artificial canal is called Ḳarā Ṣu or Ḳarā Daryā (black stream); but still many single streams and brooks bear the name of Aḳ Ṣu. The name has often been extended from rivers to towns and villages; specially well-known is Aḳ Ṣu in East-Turkistān on the river Aḳ Ṣu, a tributary of the river Yārkand-Daryā or Tarim. The Turkish name is not found until the 8t…

Sug̲h̲dāḳ

(787 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, once a great seaport, now a little town in the Crimea, Greek Σουγδαΐα or Σουγδαία, also Σουγδία, Latin and Italian Soldaia or Soldachia, Old Russian Surož; the Arabic form S̲h̲olṭāṭia in Idrīsī (transl. Jaubert, ii. 395) is probably connected with the Italian form. The name is connected with Sog̲h̲d [q. v.], the name of a country in Central Asia and explained as Iranian; its foundation is therefore ascribed to the Alans (see allān). The Alans are mentioned in the region (east of the Tauric Chersonese) as late as the xiiith and xivth centuries. Like the Greek cities, Sugdaia had an er…

Turkistān

(1,277 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
or turkestan, a Persian word meaning the “land of the Turks”. To the Persians of course only the southern frontier of the land of the Turks, the frontier against Īrān, was of importance and this frontier naturally depended on political conditions. On their very first appearance in Central Asia in the sixth century a. d., the Turks reached the Oxus (cf. āmū-daryā). In the time of the Sāsānians therefore the land of the Turks began immediately north of the Oxus; according to the story given in Ṭabarī (i. 435 sq.) the Oxus was settled by an arrow-shot of Īras̲h̲ as the frontier between…

Asad

(260 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḳasrī (according to the Arabic sources; according to the Persian al-Ḳus̲h̲airī), governor of Ḵh̲orāsān under the Caliph His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al-Mālik, 106—109 (724—727) and 117—120 (735—738). Especially during his first term of office he conducted himself in relation to the Arabs as a fanatical adherent of the Yemenite party. With the Persian Dihḳāns (landowners) he was in high favour and was praised by them as a prudent “householder” (Katk̲h̲udā) of his province. Sāmān-Ḵh̲udāt, the an…

Abd al-Karīm

(155 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
Buk̲h̲ārī, a Persian historian, wrote in 1233 (1818) a short summary of the geographical relations of Central Asiatic countries (Afg̲h̲ānistān, Buk̲h̲ārā, Ḵh̲īwā, Ḵh̲ōḳand, Tibet and Kas̲h̲mīr), and of historical events in those countries from 1160 (accession of Aḥmed S̲h̲āh Durrānī [q. v.] till his own times. ʿAbd al-Karīm had already left his native country in 1222 (1807-1808) and accompanied an embassy to Constantinople ; he remained there till his death, which took place after 1246 (1830), a…

Kučum K̲h̲ān

(539 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a Tatar Ḵh̲ān of Siberia, in whose reign this country was conquered by the Russians. Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī (ed. Desmaisons, p 177). is the only authority to give information regarding his origin and his genealogical relation to the other descendants of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān. According to this source, he reigned for forty years in “Turan”, lost his eyesight towards the end of his life, was driven from his kingdom by the Russians in 1003 (1594/1595), took refuge with the Mang̲h̲i̊t (Nogai) and died among them. …

Ismāʿīl

(368 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
b. Aḥmad, Abū Ibrāhīm, a Sāmānid prince (amīr) of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr, who laid the foundations of the power of his dynasty, born in Farg̲h̲āna in S̲h̲awwāl 234 (28 Apr.— 26 May 849), from 260 (874) to 279 (892) governor for his brother Naṣr in Buk̲h̲ārā; he continued to reside in this town even after he became amīr of Mā warāʾ al-Nahr by the death of his brother and in 280 (893) was confirmed in this position by the caliph. In the same year he undertook a campaign as far as Ṭarāz (the modern Awliyā-A…

Ḳaragözlü

(159 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(“Black-eyed”), a Turkish people around Hamadān, to which they pay their tribute (Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, London 1892, ii. 270 and 472). The Ḳaragözlü are several times mentioned in the history of the domestic troubles in Persia in the second half of the xviiith century; cf. J. v. Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches 2, Pest 1836, iv. 475; Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Zandīya, ed. Beer, Leiden 1888, p. 33, 42 and 93. In the first half of the xixth century the Ḳaragözlü are said to have numbered some 12,000 souls (C. Ritter, Erdkunde, viii. 404 and ix. 78). Ḳaragözlü is also the …

Ḥaidar-Mīrzā

(605 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a Persian historian, author of the Taʿrīk̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī, born in 905 = 1499-1500, died in 958 = 1551. On his descent cf. the article Dūg̲h̲lāt (i. 1079 et seq.) ; through his mother he was a grandson of the Čag̲h̲atāi Ḵh̲ān 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. His real name was Muḥammad Ḥaidar; as he himself says, he was known as Mīrzā Ḥaidar; Bābur calls him Ḥaidar Mīrzā. ¶ After the assassinat…

S̲h̲aibānids

(1,287 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, descendants of the Mongol prince S̲h̲aibān, a brother of Bātū Ḵh̲ān [q. v.]. The naines of the twelve sons of S̲h̲aibān and their earlier descendants are given by Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn ( Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Tawārīk̲h̲, ed. Blochet, p. 114 sqq., with notes by the editor from the anonymous Muʿizz al-Ansāb; on its importance as a source see W. Barthold, Turkestan v epok̲h̲u mongolskago nas̲h̲estwiya, ii, 56). Later writers give information on S̲h̲aibān and his descendants which is more legendary than historical; the bias of these tales is decided by the political conditio…
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