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(Mūnd, Mund), the longest river in Fārs ( Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb: 50 farsak̲h̲s; E. C. Ross: over 300 miles in length). The name. As a rule in Persia, sections of a river are called after the districts through which they flow. Mānd is the name of the last stretch near its mouth. The name seems to appear for the first time in the Fārs-nāma (before 510 = 1116) but only in the composite Māndistān (cf. below). ¶ The old name of the river is usually transcribed in Arabic characters Sakkān (Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, p. 120; Ibn Ḥawḳal, p. 191; Idrīsī, tr. Jaubert, i. 401) but the orthography varies: T̲h̲akān, Fārs-nāma, G. M. S.…

, king of Persia (1147—1160 = 1736—1747). Origins. Nādir b. Imām-ḳuli b. Nad̲h̲r-ḳuli belonged to the Ḳi̊ri̊ḳlu clan of the Turkoman tribe of the Afs̲h̲ārs, of which a section had settled in northern Ḵh̲urāsān, and was born on the 28th Muḥarram 1100 (Oct. 22, 1688) at Kūbkān. Entering the service of Tahmāsp II, he was called Tahmāsp-ḳuli Ḵh̲ān but after his coronation his original name was improved to Nādir, “the rare one”. At an early date Nādir distinguished himself in the incessant fighting with the Turkomans of Nasā, the Čamis̲h̲…

a religious community of Kurdish origin in the wilāyet of Mawṣil. English statistics estimate the number of S̲h̲abaks at 10,000; the Muslims give them the nickname aʿwad̲j̲ (“turbulent”, “disloyal”). The S̲h̲abak live in the villages in the Sind̲j̲ār district (ʿ Alt-rash, Yangid̲j̲a, Ḵh̲azna, Talllra etc.). They are related to their neighbours, the Yazīdīs, most of whose assemblies and places ¶ of pilgrimage they attend. On the other hand, if we may rely on Father Anastase, they show a particular devotion to ʿAlī whom they call ʿAlīras̲h̲ ( ras̲h̲ in Kurdish = “black”). Another st…

Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Ḏj̲aʿfar (d. 348 = 1959), author of the “History of Buk̲h̲ārā”, the original Arabic version of which he presented to the Sāmānid Nūḥ b. Naṣr in 332 (943—944). In 522 (1128—1129) the book was translated into Persian by Abū Naṣr Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḳubāwī who omitted several “tedious” passages. Then in 574 (1178—1179) Muḥammad b. Ẓufar prepared a new abbreviated edition of the book which he presented to Ṣadr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Burhān al-Dīn, governor of Buk̲h̲ārā. Finally an unknow…

, a Persian corruption of the Turkish soʾuḳ-bulaḳ “cold spring”; the form sāwd̲j̲ (pronunciation sāʾud̲j̲) is found as early as the ¶ Nuzhat al-Kulūb (740 = 1340). There are two places of this name: 1. The fertile district beginning at Ṭeherān and stretching to the west of the river Karad̲j̲ along both sides of the great Ṭeherān-Ḳazwīn road. To the north a range of hills separates it from Ṭalaḳān. On the southern slopes of these hills are the pits of Fes̲h̲and which supply the capital with coal. The district is watered by the Ko…

(the contracted form Rāmiz, Rāmuz is found as early as the tenth century), a town and district in Ḵh̲ūzistān [q. v.]. Rām-Hormuz lies about 55 miles southeast of Ahwāz, 65 miles S.S.E. of S̲h̲ūs̲h̲tar, and 60 miles N. E. of Behbehān. Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 43, reckons it 17 farsak̲h̲s from Ahwāz to Rām-Hormuz and 22 farsak̲h̲s from Rām-Hormuz to Arrad̲j̲ān. Ḳudāma, p. 194, who gives a more detailed list of stages, counts it 50 farsak̲h̲s from Wāsiṭ to Baṣra, thence 35 farsak̲h̲s to Ahwāz, thence 20 …

, a Persian man of letters, who died on 19th S̲h̲awwāl 1313 (April 3, 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 Ḵh̲ān of Marāg̲h̲a, was a faithful servant of Nāṣir al-Dīn S̲h̲āh (in 1852 he discovered the conspiracy of Sulaimān Ḵh̲ān) and the son from his youth upwards was in the service of the court. Muḥammad Ḥasan Ḵh̲ān was one of the first students at the Dār al-Funūn founded in 1268 (1851…

, “parasite, sponger”. This is the meaning given to the word in the majority of the European dictionaries of Arabic, Persian and Turkish, e.g. Bélot, G̲h̲affārow, Sāmī-bey, etc. But this does not render the exact shade of meaning of the word, which was first of all applied to an individual who goes to a feast without being invited or accompanies a person invited. A little lower class of parasite is called in everyday Persian ḳufailī ¶ the term applied to hangers on of the ṭufaili. According to the Arabic dictionaries, Lisān al-ʿArab, xiii., p. 429, Tād̲j̲ al-Arūs, vii., p. 418 the word ṭufailī c…

, a place in Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān on the road from Marāg̲h̲a [q. v.] to Urmiya [q. v.] south of the Lake of Urmiya. The stages on this route are still obscure. At about 15 farsak̲h̲s south of Marāg̲h̲a was the station of Barza where the road bifurcated; the main road continued southward to Dīnawar while the northwest went from Barza to Tiflīs (2 farsak̲h̲s), thence to Ḏj̲ābarwān (6 farsak̲h̲s), thence to Nirīz (4 farsak̲h̲s), thence to Urmiya (14 farsak̲h̲s); cf. Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 121 (repeated by Ḳudāma with some variations); Muḳaddasī, p. 383. The distance from Urmiya indicates that…

(Sulṭān Uwais), second king of the dynasty of Ḏj̲alāʾir [q. v.] or Īlakān (Īlkān <*Ilg’än?) who reigned 756—776 (1355—1374). Uwais, born about 742 (1341), was the son of Ḥasan Buzurg [q. v.], son of Ḥusain Gurgān ( Küräkän, “son-in-law of the Ḵh̲ān”), son of Aḳ-bug̲h̲a Noyon, son of Īlakān (*Īlkān) Noyon (Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn: Īlkāy, *Ilg’äy). Ḥasan Buzurg’s mother was a Mongol princess, daughter of Arg̲h̲un-Ḵh̲ān. Ḥasan himself married the famous Dils̲h̲ād-Ḵh̲ātūn, daughter of Dimis̲h̲ḳ-Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a, son of Čopan [cf. suldūz], who had previously married Abū Saʿīd Ḵh̲ān and on h…

, the ancient Ragha, a town in Media. Its ruins may be seen about 5 miles S. S. E. of Teheran [q. v.] to the south of a spur projecting from Elburz into the plain. The village and sanctuary of S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm lie immediately south of the ruins. The geographical importance of the town lies in the fact that it was situated in the fertile zone which lies between the mountains and the desert, by which from time immemorial communication has taken place between the west and east of Īrān. Several roads from Māzandarān [q. v.] converge on Raiy on the north side. In the Avesta, Wīdēwdāt, i. 15, Raghā is men…

, the name given to the new town of Mezre, built beside Ḵh̲arpūt [q. v.] in honour of Sulṭān ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. In time the name became applied to the new wilāyet formed in 1879 around Ḵh̲arpūt-Mezre; this consisted of three sand̲j̲aḳs: al-ʿAzīz, Ḵh̲ozāt and Malaṭiya. As a result of the administrative reforms of 1340 (1921) each of these sand̲j̲aḳs became an independent wilāyet but later modifications were made. According to the official annual of 1925—1926, the wilāyet of Maʿmūret al-ʿAzīz has an area of 11,299 sq. km. or 12,428,900 dönüms, of which 3,124,596 are arable. It contains 6 …

(i. e. Ilčī-yi Niẓām-s̲h̲āhī “ambassador of Niẓām-S̲h̲āh” of the Dakhan), a Persian historian whose real name was Ḵh̲ūrs̲h̲āh b. Ḳubād al-Ḥusainī. Born in the Persian ʿIrāḳ, he entered the service of Sulṭān Burhān [cf. nihẓāms̲h̲āh]. The latter being converted to the S̲h̲īʿa sent Ḵh̲ūrs̲h̲āh as ambassador to Ṭahmāsp-S̲h̲āh Safawi. Reaching Raiy in Rad̲j̲ab 952 (Sept. 1545), he accompanied the S̲h̲āh to Georgia and S̲h̲īrwān during the campaign of 953 (1546) against Alḳāṣ-Mīrzā. He stayed in Persia till 971 (1563), perhaps with occasional breaks. He died at Golconda on the 15th Ḏh̲u …

, an Iranian people of Nearer Asia, living in Persia, Transcaucasia, Turkey and al-ʿIrāḳ (cf. kurdistān). Before 1914 the number of Kurds living in compact bodies or isolated colonies (Ḵh̲orāsān, Asia Minor, Cilicia, southern Syria) was estimated at two to three millions. Although many, travellers have passed through Kurdistān and there are a large number of important works dealing with the Kurds from the linguistic, historical, ethnographical and political point of view, we still lack a general study devoted to this people. Its prepara…

, a ruined site in Transcaspiana (Türkmenistan), N. W. of the confluence of the Atrak and its right bank tributary the Sumbar, or more exactly, on the road which runs from Čat at right angles to the road connecting Čikis̲h̲lär with the railway station of Aydi̊n. The ruins are surrounded by a wall of brick and a ditch and have an area of 320 acres. The old town, situated in the steppes which are now peopled by Turkomans, received its water from a canal led from the Atrak about 40 miles ¶ above Čat. Near the latter place the canal diverged northwards from the river, crossed the Sumbar b…

(now Ḳuba), a district in the eastern Caucasus, between Bākū and Derbend [q. v.]. The district of Ḳubba with an area of 2,800 square miles is bounded on the north by a large river, the Samūr, which flows into the Caspian, on the west by the “district” of Samūr which belongs to Dāg̲h̲istān [q. v.], on the south by the southern slopes of the Caucasian range (peaks: S̲h̲āh-Dag̲h̲, 13,951 feet high, Bābā Dag̲h̲ 11,900) which separate Ḳubba from S̲h̲amāk̲h̲a (cf. the article s̲h̲īrwān), on the S. E. by the district of Bākū and on the east by the Caspian. The area between the mount…

, a town in the old province of Hamad̲h̲ān, with, at the present day, 5,000-6,000 inhabitants (de Morgan), at a height of 5,860 feet on the branch of the Gāmāsāb which comes from the S. E. from the vicinity of Burūd̲j̲ird; the Gāmāsāb then runs W. to Bisūtūn. Nihāwand lies on the southern road which, coming from Kirmāns̲h̲āh (Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 198), leads into Central Persia (Iṣfahān) avoiding the massif of Alwand (ʾΟρόντηΣ) which rises W. of Hamad̲h̲ān. Hence the importance of the town in the wars of Persia with her western neighbours. The French excavations of 1931 (Dr. Contenau)…

, [Balād̲h̲urī gives the form Māyazdiyār < *Māh-yazd-yār], the last of the Ḳārinid rulers of Ṭabarīstān, leader of the rising against the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim. Origins. The Ḳarīn-wand dynasty claimed descent from Ḳarīn b. Sūk̲h̲rā, whom Ḵh̲usraw Anus̲h̲irwān had established in Ṭabarīstān and who was descended from the legendary smith Kāwa, who saved Farīdūn. The hereditary fief of the dynasty was the “mountain of Ḳarīn” [or of Windād Hurmuz], Ṭabarī, iii. 1295. The capital of this region was probably Lapūra (cf. Lafūr on…

, a little township in the Persian province of Kermāns̲h̲āh on the great road between Kangāwar and Bīsutūn. The district of Ṣaḥna contains about 28 villages inhabited by settled Turks belonging to the tribe of Ḵh̲odābandelū (of Hamadān). At Ṣaḥna there are a few Ahl-i-Ḥaḳḳ (see the article ʿalī ilāhī), who are in touch with their spiritual superiors in Dīnawar (see dīnawar), a frontier district in the north. Ṣaḥna must not be confused with Senne, the capital of the Persian province of Kurdistān, the former residence of the Wālīs of Ardilān [q. v.]. Quite …

(Kangarī or Sallārī), a d y n as t y of Dailamī origin which came from Tārom [q. v.] and reigned in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Hid̲j̲ra in Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān, Arrān and Armenia. Its coming to power was one of the manifestations of the great movement of Īrānian liberation which formed a kind of interlude between the end of Arab domination and the first Turkish invasions. While in Ḵh̲urāsān and Transoxania this movement culminated in the rule of the Sāmānids [q. v.], in western Persia and Mesopotamia its standardbearers were the Dailamīs and to a smaller extent the Kurds (cf. V. Minorsky, L…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

, a district in Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. According to Balād̲h̲urī, p. 328, Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ, sent to conquer Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān, attacked the people of Mūḳān and Gīlān. A number of inhabitants of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān and Armenians who had gathered in the nāhiya of Urm and at *Balwānkarad̲j̲ were defeated by one of Saʿīd’s captains. The leader of the rebels was hanged on the walls of the fortress of Bād̲j̲arwān ( Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, G.M.S., p. 181: Bād̲j̲arwān was 20 farsak̲h̲s north of Ardabīl). Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 119, mentions the citadel of Urm between al-Bad̲h̲d̲h̲ (a town of Bābak…

, a town in northern Persia, capital of the province of Ḵh̲amsa which lies between Ḳazwīn, Hamad̲h̲ān, Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān and Gīlān. Geography. The town of Zand̲j̲ān is situated on the river Zangānarūd (the old name of which, according to the Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, p. 221, was Mād̲j̲-rūd), which runs from east to west and joins the Safīd-rūd [q. v.] on its right bank. Zand̲j̲ān is an important station on the great road from Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān to Ḳazwīn and thence to Tiḥrān and Ḵh̲urāsān. Zand̲j̲ān is also at the junction of several other roads: to the north, that to Ardabīl [cf. tārom] and Gīlān (via…

(called in Nog̲h̲ai Turkish, Ḳuman, in Čerkes, Phs̲h̲iz), one of the four great rivers of the Caucasus (Rion, Kura, Terek and Ḳuban). It is about 450 miles long. It rises near Elburz at a height of 13,930 feet. Its three constituents (Ḵh̲urzuḳ, Ulu-Ḳam, Uč-Ḳulan) join together before reaching the defile through which the Ḳuban enters the plains (at a height of 1075 feet). The Ḳuban at first runs through the wooded outer spurs of the mountains and then, taking a westerly direction, flows through the pla…

, a little town and district in southern Ād̲h̲arbaid̲j̲ān, on the right bank of the Ḏj̲ag̲h̲ātū. In the south the boundary runs a little over the river Sāruḳ, a tributary on the right bank of the Ḏj̲ag̲h̲ātū. In the north it is bounded by the district of Ād̲j̲arī, in the east by the province of Ḵh̲amse. The name is derived from the Mongol sain = good. Population: The Turkish Afs̲h̲ar tribe, of which a part had to emigrate to Urmia to make room for the Čārdawrī (Čārdowlī) tribe of Lūr origin (the district of Čardawr on the Seimerre) whom Fatḥ ʿAlī S̲h̲āh brough…

, an Ortoḳid, son of Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Īlg̲h̲āzī of the line of Mārdīn. Al-Malik al-ʿĀlim al-ʿĀdil Ḥisām al-Dīn Tīmūr-Tas̲h̲ was born in 498 (1104) and by the age of 12 (in 512) his father had left him in Aleppo as his temporary deputy. In 515, Tīmūr-Tas̲h̲ was sent to the Sald̲j̲ūḳ Sulṭān Maḥmūd and as a result of this mission Maiyāfāriḳīn [q.v.] was added to the territory of the Ortoḳids. After the death of Īlg̲h̲āzī, his lands were divided up. Tīmūr-Tas̲h̲ received Mārdīn, his brother Sulaimān, …

(Sulēmānī), a town and district in southern Kurdistān. A distinction must be made between the ḳaḍā of Sulaimānīya proper (the canton of Sar-činār) and the territory formerly ruled first by hereditary pās̲h̲ās and later by the Ottoman mutaṣṣarifs of Sulaimānīya. The historical region of Sulaimānīya lies between the Persian frontier, the Diyāla [q.v.], the lands that go with Kirkūk [q. v.] and the little Zāb and occupies the group of mountains from which flow rivers to the east (Sīrwān; cf. s̲h̲ahrizūr), the south (ʿAḍaim, q.v.) and the north and northwest (left bank tributar…

, a ruler of the Turkoman dynasty of the Aḳ-Ḳoyunlu (the founder of the dynasty was Bāyandur), prince of Diyār Bakr from 858, and then (872—882) sovereign of a powerful state comprising Armenia, Mesopotamia and Persia. The stature of Ḥasan Beg b. ʿAlī Beg b. Ḳara ʿOt̲h̲mān (= Ḳara Iläḳ?, reading uncertain), earned him the nickname of Uzun (= “the long”). The reign of Uzun Ḥasan is very important but not well known. Rivalries of the Turkoman tribes. The original fief of the chiefs of the house of Bāyandur and of their Turkoman tribe “of the White Sheep” (Aḳ-Ḳoyunlu) w…

(in Arabie Wak̲h̲k̲h̲ān), a district to the south of the Pāmīr [q. v.]. Wak̲h̲ān is a long and narrow valley which runs from east to west and is watered by the upper course of the Oxus (Pand̲j̲a) and by the river Wak̲h̲ān-daryā, which is the most southern source of the Oxus [cf. amū-daryā]. The length of Wak̲h̲ān along the Oxus is 67 miles and of the Wak̲h̲ān-daryā (from Langar-kis̲h̲ to the Wak̲h̲d̲j̲īr pass) 113 miles, Afg̲h̲an sources put the distance from Is̲h̲kās̲h̲im to Sarḥadd at 66 kurōh = 22 farsak̲h̲s. To the south of Wak̲h̲ān rises the wall of the Hindū-Kus̲h̲ through whic…

, a town in Buk̲h̲āra, also called Nasaf by the Arab geographers (cf. the similar evolution of Nashāwa from Nak̲h̲čawan). The town lay in the valley of the Kas̲h̲ka-Daryā, cf. Ibn Ḥawḳal, p. 376: Kas̲h̲k-rūd̲h̲, which runs southwards parallel to the Zarafs̲h̲ān (river of Samarḳand) and runs towards the Amū-Daryā [q. v.] but before joining it disappears in the sands. Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab lay on the road joining Buk̲h̲ārā to Balk̲h̲ 4 days’ journey from the former and eight from the latter (cf. Muḳaddasī, p. 344). In the time of Iṣṭak̲h̲rī (p. 325) the town consisted only of one quarter ( rabaḍ) and a …

, a district in Eastern Transcaucasia. In Armenian it is called S̲h̲akhē, in Georgian S̲h̲akha (and S̲h̲akik̲h̲?); the Arabs write S̲h̲akkai = S̲h̲akhē (Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 123, Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, p 183, Balād̲h̲urī, p. 206), S̲h̲akkī (Yāḳūt, iii. 311), S̲h̲akkan (Ibn al-Faḳīh, p. 293, Balād̲h̲urī, p. 194), S̲h̲akīn (Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲, ii. 68). The usual boundaries of S̲h̲ekkī were: on the east, the Gök-čai which separates it from S̲h̲īrwān [q. v.] proper; on the west, the Alazan (Turk. Ḳani̊ḳ?) and its left tributary the Ḳas̲h̲ḳa-čai, which separa…

, one of the names for gipsies in Persia; parallel forms are: in Persian, lūrī, lōrī (Farhang-i Ḏj̲ahāngīrī); in Balūčī, lōrī (Denys Bray, Census of Baluchistan, 1911, iv. 143, gives the popular etymology from lōṛ = “lot, share”). The name lūlī is first found in a legend relating to the reign of Bahrām Gūr (420—438 a. d.). At the request of this Sāsānian King, who wished to amuse his subjects, the Indian king S̲h̲angal (?) sent to Persia 4,000 (12,000) Indian musicians. Ḥamza (350 = 961), Berlin-Kaviani, p. 38, calls them al-Zuṭṭ [q. v.], Firdawsī (M…

, a term used in the administrative system of Persia (the usual pronunciation tuyūl is due to a false assimilation to Arabic plurals of the type fuʿūl; in the same way Chardin’s translation “perpetual” is due to an erroneous derivation from the Arabic ṭawīl “long”). The tiyūl (at least in the xixth century and in principle) is the authorisation granted by the government to an individual to levy his salary or pension directly on the taxes which a village or group of villagers has to pay the treasury. In its simple form the tiyūl was a kind of guarantee to secure the payment of the pensio…

(i.), a town in the Persian province of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲an. Position. The town lies about 40 miles N. of Tabrīz, halfway between it and the Araxes (it is 42 miles from Marand to Ḏj̲ulfā). The road ¶ from Tabrīz to Ḵh̲oi also branches off at Marand. A shorter road from Tabrīz to Ḵh̲oi follows the north bank of Lake Urmia and crosses the Mis̲h̲owdag̲h̲ range by the pass between Tasūd̲j̲ [q.v.] and Ḍiyā al-Dīn. Marand, which is surrounded by many gardens, occupies the eastern corner of a rather beautiful plain, about ten miles broad a…

(Sonḳor), a canton between Dainawar [q. v.] and Senna [q. v.], a dependency of Kirmans̲h̲āh. Lying on the road between Dainawar and Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān it must correspond approximately to the first marḥala on the stretch from Dainawar to Sīsar, the name of which is read al-Ḏj̲ārbā (Muḳaddasī, p. 382), Ḵh̲arbārd̲j̲ān (Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 119; Ḳudāma, p. 212) etc. which was 7 farsak̲h̲s from Dainawar (the actual distance between the present ruins of Dainawar and Sunḳur is however not more than 15 miles). Sunḳur might therefore…

, a k̲h̲ānate in the Persian province of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. Mākū occupies the N. W. extremity of Persia and forms an enclave between Turkey (the old sand̲j̲aḳ of Bāyazīd) and Transcaucasia. In the west the frontier with Turkey follows the heights which continue the line of Zagros in the direction of Ararat. The frontier then crosses a plain stretching to the south of this mountain (valley of the Ṣari̊-ṣu) and runs over the saddle between Great and Little Ararat. Down to 1920 Great Ararat formed the fronti…

(“bridgehead of Zohāb”), a place on the way to Zagros on the great Bag̲h̲dād-Kirmāns̲h̲āh road, taking its name from the stone bridge of two arches over the river Alwand, a tributary on the left bank of the ¶ Diyāla. Sarpul now consists simply of a little fort ( ḳūr-k̲h̲āna = “arsenal”) in which the governor of Zohāb lives (the post is regularly filled by the chief of the tribe of Gūrān), a caravanserai, a garden of cypress and about 40 houses. The old town of Zohāb about 4 hours to the north is now in ruins. To the east behind the cliffs of …

is written Sinna or Sinandid̲j̲ ( did̲j̲ = diz “castle, fort”). The form Sihna leading to confusion with Ṣaḥna [q. v.] is wrong. 1. Capital of the Persian province of Kurdistān, the ancient seat of the wālīs of Ardilān [q. v.]. For the period before the building of the present town see the article sīsar. Under the year 988 (1580) the S̲h̲araf-nāme (i. 88) speaks of a fief of Tīmūr-Ḵh̲ān, Ardilān, including Ḥasanābād, Sīna, etc., but the historian of Senna attributes to Sulaimān-Ḵh̲ān the building of the modern town on the site of a ruin already there. Acc…

, a district and town in the Persian province of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. The name. The Syrians write Urmiyā, the Armenians Ormi, the Arabs Urmiya, the Persians Urūmī, the Turks Urūmīye or Rūmīye (through a fanciful derivation from Rūm “Byzantium, Turkey”). The name is of uncertain, non-Iranian origin. Assyrian sources mention a place called Urmeiate in the land of Mann in the vicinity of the Lake of Urmiya (cf. Streck, in Z.A., xiv. 140; Belck, Das Reich der Mannäer, in Verhandl. d. Berl. Gesell. f. Anthrop., 1894, and Minorsky, Kelas̲h̲in etc., in Zap., xxiv. [1917], 170). On the other ha…

, a district comprising the western half of Māzandarān [q. v.]. Iranian tradition. According to Darmesteter, Avesta, ii. 416, Rūyān corresponds to the mountain called Raodita (“reddish”) in Yas̲h̲t, 19, 2, and Rōyis̲h̲n-ōmand in Bundahis̲h̲n, xii. 2, 27 (transl. West, p. 34). Bīrūnī, Chronologie, ed. Sachau, p. 220, makes Rūyān the scene of the exploit of the archer Āris̲h̲ (cf. Ẓahīr al-Dīn, p. 18 [ Yas̲h̲t,8, 6, in this connection mentions the hill Aryō-xs̲h̲nθa]). In the letter addressed to the mobad Tansar by king *Gus̲h̲nasps̲h̲āh (iiird century a.d.?), the latter claims to b…

1. Capital of the district of Lāristān, to the southeast of Fārs. Very little is known of Lāristān and its early history. The country appears to correspond to the land of the dragon Haftān-bōk̲h̲t which was killed by Ardas̲h̲īr Pāpakān. According to Persian legend, Ardas̲h̲īr’s adversary lived in the village of Alār in the rustāḳ of Kōd̲j̲arān which was one of the maritime rustāḳs ( rasātīḳ al-sīf) of the province Ardas̲h̲īr-Ḵh̲urra (Ṭabarī, i. 820); Nöldeke in his translation of the Kārnāmak (p. 50) gives the variants Gulār (?) and Kōčārān; the S̲h̲āh-nāme, ed. Mohl, v. 308: Kud̲j̲ār…

, “Country of the S̲h̲ūl’, a district ( bulūk) in the province of Fārs. Three epochs must be distinguished in the history of the district: one before the arrival of the S̲h̲ūl, the period of their rule (from the viith/xiiith centuries), and the period of its occupation by the Mamassanī Lūrs about the beginning of the xiith/xviiith century. During the Sāsānid period the district was included in the kūra of S̲h̲āpūr-k̲h̲ūra. The founding of its capital Nawbandagan (Nawband̲j̲ān) is attributed to S̲h̲āpūr I. This important town situated on the road from Fārs to Ḵh̲…

, a people of South Caucasian stock (Iberic, “Georgian”) now dwelling in the southeast corner of the shores of the Black Sea. The ancient history of the Laz is complicated by the uncertainty which reigns in the ethnical nomenclature of the Caucasus generally; the same names in the course of centuries are applied to différents units (or groups). The fact that the name Phasis was applied to the Rion, to the Čorok̲h̲ (the ancient Akampsis) and even to the sources of the Araxes also creates difficulties. The earliest Greek writers do not mention the Laz. The name Λαξοί, Λᾶξοι is only…

(or Warām, cf. Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am, iv. 918), a town about 40 miles (Yāḳūt, c. 30 mīl) S.S.W. of Ṭeherān, now the capital of the district of Ḵh̲wār-wa-Warāmīn. The plain of Warāmīn watered by canals trom the Ḏj̲ād̲j̲arūd is regarded as the granary of Ṭeherān. The town lies to the south of the great road from Raiy to Ḵh̲urāsān passing via Ḵh̲wār (near Ḳis̲h̲lāḳ?) and Simnān (cf. Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 22; only in the Mongol period did the road from Sulṭānīya to Ḵh̲urasān run via Raiy-Warāmīn-Ḵh̲wār: Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, p. 173). On the other hand in the ninth and tenth centuries, Raiy wa…

(Lenkoran), the capital of the district of the same name in the province of Bākū. Lankoran is the Russian pronunciation of the name which was at one time written Langar-kunān (anchorage), or perhaps Langar-kanān (place which pulls out the anchors) which is pronounced Länkärān in Persian and Lankōn in Tālig̲h̲ī The ships of the Bākū-Enzelī [q. v.] line call at Lankoran, which has an open roadstead but at 8 miles N. E. of the town is the island of Sarā, which has an excellent roadstead which shelters the ships in bad weather. In the district of Lankoran, de Morgan found monuments of very…

, a town in Persian ʿIrāḳ, about ten miles west of the watershed between the Zand̲j̲ān [q. v.], which runs to the Ḳi̊zi̊l-Üzän and the Abhar, which loses itself in the direction of Ṭeherān. The old Persian name of the canton of Sulṭānīya was S̲h̲āhrūyāz. It was originally a dependency of Ḳazwīn. The Mongols called this district Ḳung̲h̲ur-ölöng (“the prairie of the Alezans”: there is still a village called “Öläng” S.E. of Sulṭānīya). Sulṭānīya is about 5,000-5,500 feet above sea-level. The coolne…

, a town in Turkey on the Armenian plateau on the eastern shore of Lake Wān. The name Wān is not found in the Arabic sources which deal with the Muslim conquest. Lake Wān is usually named by the Arabs after the towns on the northern shore, Ard̲j̲īs̲h̲ and Ak̲h̲lāṭ. Ibn Ḥawḳal alone (p. 250) mentions the Artsrunid Ibn Dairānī, lord of Zawazān, of Wān and Wosṭān. Yāḳūt, iv. 895, mentions a fortress of Wān but makes it a dependency of Erzerum and locates it between Ak̲h̲lāṭ and Tiflis (?). For the Muslim conquest of Armenia see that article. The important fact is the campaign of Bug̲h̲ā…

(Özbek) b. Muḥammad Pahlawān b. Ildegiz (Eldigüz?), fifth and last atābek of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān (607—622 = 1210—1225). According to Yāḳūt, Uzbek’s laḳab was Muẓaffar al-Dīn. His mother and that of his elder brother Abū Bakr were slaves, while the two other sons of Pahlawān, Ḳutlug̲h̲-Inanč and Amīrmīrān, were born of the princess Inanč-Ḵh̲ātūn. Uzbek married Malika-Ḵh̲ātūn, wife of the last Sald̲j̲ūḳ Sulṭān Tug̲h̲ri̊l II, by whom he had a son (Ṭug̲h̲ri̊l). Like all the reigns in periods of transition, Uzbek’s was a very troubled one. Before his accession to the thro…

, “land of the Lurs”, a region in the S.W. 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 xviiith century the Mamasani confederation occupied the old S̲h̲ulistān [q. v.] and thus created a third Lur territory between Kūh-Gīlū and S̲h̲īrāz. It is however only since the xvith century that Lur-i Kūčik [q. v.] has been known as Luristān (for greater precision it w…

, a mystic and poet who wrote in a Persian dialect. According to Riḍā Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān (xixth century), who does not give his source, Bābā Ṭāhir lived in the period of Dailamī rule and died in 401 (1010). Among his quatrains there is an enigmatical one: “I am that sea ( baḥr) which entered into a vase; that point which entered into the letter. In each alf (“thousand”, i. e. of years?) arises an alif-ḳadd (a man upright in stature like the letter alif). I am the alif-ḳadd who has come in this alf”. Mahdī Ḵh̲ān in the J. A. S. Bengal has given an extremely curious interpretation of this quatrain: the letters alf-ḳ…

, a town and district in Persian Kurdistān, administered sometimes from Senne, sometimes from Tabrīz and situated on the upper Ḏj̲ag̲h̲ātū east of Bāne. The inhabitants are Kurds (Mukrī). In religion they are S̲h̲āfiʿī Sunnīs; there are also adepts of the Naḳs̲h̲bandī S̲h̲aik̲h̲s. The family of local Ḵh̲āns is related to that of the Wālīs of Ardilān. The town has 1200 houses, 2 mosques, a bazaar, etc. The district (with its dependency Mīrede) comprises 360 villages. According to the census of 1296 a. h., there were 34,024 people in the district. The government taxes amounted t…

famous Persian scientist and poet of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ period (d. in 526 = 1132). Biography. Although reliable information on Ḵh̲aiyām is still scarce we cannot underestimate the importance of the sources at present available. In his Algebra he calls himself Abu ’l-Fatḥ ʿOmar b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḵh̲aiyāmī and in his verses seems to use Ḵh̲aiyām (“tent-maker”) as his tak̲h̲alluṣ. It is likely that this nickname refers to the profession of his ancestors. W. Litten, in his pamphlet Was bedeutet Chajjām? Warum hat O. Chajjām... gerade diesen Dichternamen gewählt?, Berlin 1930 (25 p.), has sugg…

(Tat), a Turkish word, meaning “the foreign elements included in the lands of the Turks” (Thomsen). 1. The term has a rather complicated history. Its occurrence in the Ork̲h̲on inscriptions (viiith century) was first noticed by Vambéry ( Noten su d. alttürk. Inschriften Mém. Soc.Finno-Ougr, xii., Helsingfors 1899, p. 88—89). Thomsen ( Turcica, ibid., xxxvii., 1916, p. 15) proposed to translate the words on oḳ og̲h̲liña tatiña tägi, “up to the sons of the Ten Arrows (r= The Western Turks) and their tāt (= their subjects of foreign origin)”. Thomsen passes over the question of …

, a town in Persian Kurdistān, bounded by Hamadān, Dīnawar and Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. The Arab geographers place Sīsar on the Dīnawar-Marāg̲h̲a road 20—22 farsak̲h̲s (3 stages) north of Dīnawar (Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 119—121; Ḳudāma, p. 212; Muḳaddasī, p. 382). According to Balād̲h̲urī (ed. de Goeje, p. 310), Sīsar occupied a depression ( k̲h̲ifāḍ) surrounded by 30 mounds, whence its Persian name “30 summits”. For greater accuracy it was called Sīsar of Ṣadk̲h̲āniya ( wakāna Sīsar tudʿā Sīsar Ṣadk̲h̲āniya) which Balād̲h̲urī correctly explains as Sīsar of the hundred springs: Ḵh̲ānī in…

(original Iranian form Tōs, in Arabic transcription Ṭūs), a district in Ḵh̲urāsān. In the historical period Tūs was the name of a district containing several towns. The town of Nawḳān flourished down to the end of the third (ninth) century. The form Nawḳan < Nōḳan is confirmed by the present name of the Mes̲h̲hed quarter Noug̲h̲ān (where the dipthong ou corresponds to the old wāw-i mad̲j̲hūl, i. e. ō). At a later date, the other town Ṭābarān became more important and was considerably extended so that the original Ṭābarān seems to have become one of the faubourgs…

(older Sāwad̲j̲), a town and district in Central Persia. It lies on the direct road from Ḳazwīn to Ḳum (Ḳazwīn-Sāwa: 22 farsak̲h̲; Sāwa-Ḳum: 9 farsak̲h̲). This road practically corresponds with the royal road (S̲h̲āhrāh) described by Mustawfī (Sūmg̲h̲ān [?] -Sagzābād-Sāwa-Iṣfāhān) which was very important when, under the Mongols Arg̲h̲ūn and Uld̲j̲aitū, Sulṭānīya became the capital of Persia. The Ḳazwīn-Sāwa road may yet again resume its old importance for traffic between North Persia and the sou…

(S̲h̲ig̲h̲nān), a district on the upper Oxus (Pand̲j̲); the part on the left bank now belongs to Afg̲h̲ān Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān [q. v.] and that on the right to the Russian Pamir. The districts of G̲h̲ārān and Rōs̲h̲ān, the one above and the other below S̲h̲ug̲h̲nān are also divided into two by the political frontier. Afg̲h̲ān S̲h̲ug̲h̲nān has fifteen villages with four hundred houses and six thousand inhabitants, its administrative centre is at Yāwurda in the little valley of Udyar. Russian S̲h̲ug̲h̲n…

, 1. the most southern group of Kurd tribes in Persia. According to Zain al-ʿĀbidīn their name (Lāk, often Lākk) is explained by the Persian word läk (100,000) which is said to have been the original number of families of Lak. The group is of importance as the Zand dynasty arose from it. The Lak now living in Northern Lūristān are sometimes confused with the Lūr (Zain al-ʿĀbidīn), whom they resemble from the somatic and ethnical point of view. The facts of history however show that the Lak have immigrated to their presen…

, “celestial sphere”, nom de plume ( tak̲h̲alluṣ) of the Persian historian and man ofletters, Mīrzā Muḥammad Taḳī of Kās̲h̲ān. After a studious youth spent in his native town he settled definitely in Ṭihrān, where he found a patron in the poet-laureate ( malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ) of Fatḥ ʿAlī Ḵh̲ān. On his accession (1250 = 1834) Muḥammad S̲h̲āh appointed him his private panegyrist ( maddāḥ-i k̲h̲āṣṣa) and secretary and accountant in the treasury ( muns̲h̲ī wa-mustawfī-i dīwān). The same S̲h̲āh entrusted him with the composition of a universal history. Nāṣir al-Dīn S̲h̲āh a…

, the capital of Georgia and also the eastern part of Georgia (Kharthlia). The Name. In Georgian the town is called Tphilisi or Thbilisi which is usually explained as derived from tphili “hot” (referring to the hot springs of Tiflis), in Armenian Tphk̲h̲is (Tphlis), ¶ in Arabic Taflīs (Balād̲h̲urī: Ṭaflīs). Among similar names we may note the town ΘιλβίΣ or ΘάλβιΣ; mentioned by Ptolemy v., ch. 11 to the N. E. of Abania, i. e. in Dag̲h̲estān and the place called Taflīs to the south of Lake Urmia [cf. Ḳudāma, p. 213: the road running from D…

(Těhrān), 1. the capital of Persia. The name. The Arab spelling Ṭihrān survived down to the beginning of the xxth century. The Arabs frequently rendered by ṭ the initial t of Persian names (aspiration?). The Arab Yāḳūt however admits the pronunciation Tihrān; the Persian Zakarīyā Ḳazwīnī only gives this form. The short i in modern Persian is regularly pronounced like a short e, whence the European transcriptions Teheran etc. (already in Clavijo and della Valle; Chardin: Théran). The pronunciation Tährān is unknown in Persia but the Turks of Constantinople,…

(Us̲h̲nuh, Us̲h̲nūya), a district and town in Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. Us̲h̲nū lies to the south of Urmiya [q. v.] from which it has usually been administered. The district is watered by the upper course of the river Gādir (Gader) which, after traversing the district of Sulduz [q. v.], flows into Lake Urmiya on the S. W. To the south of Us̲h̲nū is the district of Lāhid̲j̲ān which is administered from Sawd̲j̲-Būlāḳ [q. v.]. The town of Us̲h̲nū (710 houses) is situated on the left bank of the Gādir (Čom…

, the name of several groups of Turkish tribes in Persia. The term means in Turkish “those who love the S̲h̲āh”. Persian historians write: s̲h̲āhīsēwan, thus indicating the Turkish accusative ( s̲h̲āhi̊) and the Turkish closed e. History. According to Malcolm, S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās I (995—1037 = 1587—1628), in order to reduce the turbulent Turkish tribes known as ḳi̊zi̊l-bas̲h̲ (= “red-heads”), who played the part of praetorians, invited the men of all the tribes to enrol themselves in a new body which was called S̲h̲āh-sewan. Entirely devoted to the Ṣafawī f…

, (the “sinner”), pseudonym ( tak̲h̲alluṣ) of S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl [q. v.]. Of his Persian po ems we only know so far the single verse quoted in the anthology compiled by his son Sām Mīrzā [q.v.] and some other lines. On the other hand his Turkish Dīwān is known from several manuscripts, although these are rather scarce and differ considerab y. E. G. Browne ( Persian Liter, in Modern Times, p. 12—13) has discovered the curious fact that the founder of the Ṣafawī kingdom wrote mainly in Turkish while his rival Sulṭān Selīm used Persian for his poems. Ḵh̲aṭāʾī is now ri…

, a S̲h̲īʿī Arab dynasty of Ḥawīza [q. v.] in Ḵh̲ūzistān. The town of Ḥawīza (or Ḥuwaiza; Ibn Battūta, ii. 93: ) was situated in E. Long. 31° 25′, Lat. 48° 5′ on the old course of the Kark̲h̲a [q. v.] where the latter turned west. The founder of the dynasty, Saiyid Muḥammad b. Falāḥ, according to the genealogists, was a descendant in the fourteenth generation from the seventh imam Mūsā al-Kāẓim. S. Muḥammad was born at Wāsiṭ and studied at Ḥilla with S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Aḥmad b. Fahd, known for his leanings to mysticism. The ixth (xvth) century is important in the history of the S̲h̲īʿī g̲h̲ulāt (the rising…

, an Indian(?) deity, of whom there was a famous idol at Zamīn-Dāwar in the country of Zābul, east of Sīstān. In 33 (654—55) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Samura, appointed governor of Sīstān, arrived at Dāwar and laid siege to the hill of Zūn (* d̲j̲abal al-Zūn). He entered the sanctuary of Zūn where there was an idol of gold with two rubies for eyes. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān cut off an arm and took away the rubies but left the remainder to the local marzubān, saying that his only object was to show the impotence of the idol (Balād̲h̲urī, p. 394). Marquart found in Chinese sources a mention of the temple of Deva …

(S̲h̲akkāk), a Kurdish tribe on the Turco-Persian frontier. In Persia to the west of Lake Urmiya before the war they occupied the cantons of Brādōst, Somāi [q. v.], Čehrīḳ (cf. salmās) and Ḳotūr; in Turkey, the eastern districts of the wilāyet of Wān: Sarāi (Maḥmūdī) and Albaḳ (Bas̲h̲ḳalʿa), i.e. the territory which in the xvith century belonged to the Dumbulī tribe ( S̲h̲araf-nāma, i. 313—314). The name of the tribe is written by Yūsuf Ḍiyā al-Dīn: S̲h̲ikākān and by S̲h̲īrwānī: S̲h̲akāk; Ḵh̲urs̲h̲īd Efendī writes “S̲h̲iḳāḳī or S̲h̲ikākī”. To the south of Lak…

(S̲h̲i̊ḳāg̲h̲i̊), a tribe of Kurdish origin. According to Yūsuf Ḍiyā al-Dīn, the word s̲h̲iḳāḳī means in Kurdish a beast which has a particular disease of the foot. According to the S̲h̲araf-nāma (i. 148), the S̲h̲aḳāḳī were one of the four warrior tribes, ( ʿas̲h̲īrat) in the nāhiya of Finlk of the principality of Ḏj̲azīra. According to the Ottoman sāl-nāma, there were Kurdish S̲h̲aḳāḳī in the nāḥiya of S̲h̲eik̲h̲ler in the ḳaḍā of Ḳillīs in ¶ the wilāyet of Aleppo (cf. Spiegel, Eran. Altertumskunde, i, 744). The nāḥiya S̲h̲aḳāḳ of the Ḏj̲ihānnumā (between Mukus and Ḏj̲ulāmerg) is c…

, the Russians; at first the Normans, then the founders of the dukedom of Kiev. The Rūs of the west. In his description of Spain Yaʿḳūbī, B.G.A., vii. 354, says that in 229 (843—844) “the Mad̲j̲ūs called Rūs” invaded Seville and committed all kinds of depredations. The name Mad̲j̲ūs [q. v.] is regularly applied to the Normans. The name even passed into the Spanish Primera Crónica General (xiiith century) according to which the Almuiuces were worshippers of fire (!). The origin of this use of mad̲j̲ūs is obscure. Did the Arabs and Spaniards allude to such rites as the cremation o…

(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…

, the Persian and Turkish name of a town, in Georgian ak̲h̲al tsik̲h̲e , "New Fortress", situated on the Posk̲h̲ov river (left tributary of the upper Kur), centre of the Georgian province Samtsk̲h̲e (later Sa-atabago) which is mentioned among the conquests of Ḥabīb b. Maslama (under Muʿāwiya), al-Balād̲h̲urī, 203. ¶ Under the Mongols the local rulers (of the Ḏj̲akilʿe family) became autonomous and received the title of atabegs . The name Ḳurḳūra found in Persian and Turkish sources refers to these rulers of whom several bore the name of Ḳuarḳuare (see Brosset, Histoire de la Géorgie …

, “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 known as Luristān (for greater precision it was …

(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 gorge at Mand̲j̲īl the river, flowing here from west to east, receives a considerable tributary, the S̲h̲āh-rūd, which, rising in t…

, 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. Muḥammad Ḥasan K̲h̲ān was one of the first students at the Dār al-F…

, 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 farsak̲h̲ s north of Ardabīl). …

, 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…