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b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 382 ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪNMARZBĀN, ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (399-440/1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence and incipient disintegration, being the last effective ruler of the line. He ruled over Fārs and Ḵūzestān 415-40/1024-48, in Kermān fro…

or ANDARĀBA, the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 10 ANDARĀB or ANDARĀBA (Lit.: " between the rivers"), the name of a river and a town situated upon it in northern Afghanistan, in what was in mediaeval Islamic times the province of Ṭoḵārestān. The valley lies in 35° 47’ north latitude and 68° 49’ east longitude, and falls within the modern Afghan province (post-1964 administrative reorganization) of Baḡlān. The town …

governor in Khorasan during the confused struggles for supremacy there between the Saffarids, Samanids, and various military adventures in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th century, d. 307/920. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 643-644 AḤMAD B. SAHL B. HĀŠEM, governor in Khorasan during the confused struggles for supremacy there between the Saffarids, Samanids, and various military adventures in the late 3rd/9th and early 4th/10th century, d. 307/920. Aḥmad sprang from an aristocratic family of Persian dehqāns of the Marv oasis, the Kām…

governor in Ḵᵛārazm and son of the last Tahirid governor in Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 642 AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ṬĀHER, governor in Ḵᵛārazm and son of the last Tahirid governor in Khorasan. Although Vasmer has doubted whether Ṭāher b. Moḥammad, who ruled in Marv after the capture of Moḥammad b. Ṭāher at Nīšāpūr in 259/873, was the latter’s son, there seems no reason to doubt the filiation of Aḥmad. He is mentioned by Ebn al-Aṯīr, in his account of the complex fighting …

a military adventurer who temporarily held power in Sīstān during the confused years following the collapse of the first Saffarid amirate and the military empire of ʿAmr b. Layṯ in 287/900. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 643 AḤMAD B. QODĀM, a military adventurer who temporarily held power in Sīstān during the confused years following the collapse of the first Saffarid amirate and the military empire of ʿAmr b. Layṯ¯ in 287/900. In the ensuing years, various Saffarid princes held power within the lim…

a settlement in medieval Badaḵšān in northeastern Afghanistan, now in the modern Afghan province of Eškāšem. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 6, pp. 614 EŠKĀŠ(E)M (called Sekāšem, Sekīmešt, and Eskīmešt by early geographers), a settlement in medieval Badaḵšān in northeastern Afghanistan (q.v.), now in the modern Afghan province of Eškāšem (lat. 36° 43′ N., long. 71° 34′ E.; not to be confused with Eškameš, further to the west in the Qondoz or Qaṭaḡan district of Badaḵšān). It is situated o…

(819-93), littérateur ( adīb) and historian of Baghdad, of a Khorasani family. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 6, pp. 663-664 EBN ABĪ ṬĀHER ṬAYFŪR, ABU’L-FAŻL AḤMAD (204-80/819-93), littérateur ( adīb) and historian of Baghdad, of a Khorasani family. His extensive adab works include treatises on poets and singing, praised by Abu’l-Faraj Eṣfahānī in his Ketāb al-aḡānī, and the partially extant literary anthology Ketāb al-manṯūr wa’l-manẓūm (Cairo, 1326/1908), used by, among others, Abū Ḥayyān Tawḥīdī in his al-Baṣāʾer wa’l-ḏaḵāʾer (see the li…

(d. Marv, 1116-17), Persian writer and boon-companion ( nadīm), whose manual for courtiers preserves otherwise lost information on the later Ghaznavids. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 1-2 EBN BĀBĀ KĀŠĀNĪ (Qāšānī), ABU’L-ʿABBĀS (d. Marv, 510/1116-17), Persian writer and boon-companion ( nadīm), whose manual for courtiers preserves otherwise lost information on the later Ghaznavids. Presumably a native of Kāšān, Ebn Bābā worked in western Persia, Baghdad, and finally Khorasan, probably at the court o…

literally, “commander of commanders,” hence “supreme commander,” a military title found from the early 4th/10th century onwards, first in Iraq and then in the Iranian lands. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 969-971 i. The Early Period The appearance of the term dates from the period when the ʿAbbasid caliphs’ direct political and military power was becoming increasingly enfeebled and powerful military leaders were taking over de facto executive power in Iraq. According to the sources, the commander Hārūn b. Ḡarīb is reported to have become amīr-al…

great-grandson of the co-founder of the Saffarid dynasty and ephemeral boy amir in Sīstān, 299-301/912-13. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 992 ʿAMR B. YAʿQŪB B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿAMR B. LAYṮ ABŪ ḤAFṢ, great-grandson of the co-founder of the Saffarid dynasty and ephemeral boy amir in Sīstān, 299-301/912-13. The first Saffarid empire had collapsed a decade after the defeat and capture of ʿAmr b. Layṯ, and Sīstān itself had come under Samanid occupation in 298/911, with Abū Ṣāleḥ Manṣūr b. Esḥ…

Ghaznavid official and vizier, d. ca. 434/1043. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 660-661 AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD ŠĪRĀZĪ, ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ NAṢR (usually “Aḥmad-e ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad” in Bayhaqī, Ghaznavid official and vizier, d. ca. 434/1043. The nesba “Šīrāzī” indicates a family origin in southwest Persia; and panegyrics to Aḥmad’s son mention descent from the ʿAbbasids. But the family was in the service of the Samanids by the late 4th/10th century; and Aḥmad’s father, Abū Ṭāher, is only heard of as …

Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 6, pp. 614-615 ČAḠĀNĪĀN (Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ; Marquart’s speculation [1938, p. 93] of an origin in Mongolian čagan “white” is baseless; attested in Sogdian writing as cγʾny [Henning, pp. 8-9]), a district of medieval Islamic Transoxania substantially comprising the basin of the right-bank affluent of the Oxus, the Ča…

or Parau, a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern edge of the Kopet-Dag range facing the Kara Kum desert. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 244-245 FARĀVA (Parau), a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern edge of the Kopet-Dag range facing the Kara Kum desert. In the early Islamic period it was one of a string of strongly defended fortresses ( rebāṭs), also including Abīvard, Nasā, and Dehestān (qq.v.), along the northern front…

a small town of medieval Fārs, now in the modern rural subdistrict of the same name. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 5, pp. 520 EQLĪD, a small town of medieval Fārs, now in the modern rural subdistrict of the same name (lat. 30° 54’ N., long. 52° 40’ E.). It lies in the Zagros Mountains, and the mediaeval geographers placed it therefore in the sardsīr or cold zone. Administratively, it was in the kūra of Eṣṭaḵr, and is described by the early geographers as populous, with a fortress, running water, and extensive agricultural lands where …

a small district on the middle Syr Darya in Transoxania, at the confluence of that river with its right-bank tributary, the Arys, which flows down from Esfījāb, and also the name of a small town within it. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 2, pp. 208 FĀRĀB (Pārāb, Bārāb; Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, ed. Sotūda, p. 117, tr. Minorsky, p. 118; Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 346, tr. pp. 307, 360; Moqaddasī/Maqdesī, pp. 26, 48), a small district on the middle Syr Darya (Nahr al-Šāš, Sayḥūn) in Transoxania, at the confluence of that river with its r…

a dehqān (landowner) of Hamadān, marzbān (governor) in the former Lakhmid capital of Ḥīra in central Iraq during the years preceding the Arab conquest of that province. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 2, pp. 177 ĀZĀḎBEH B. BĀNEGĀN (MĀHĀN?) B. MEHR-BONDĀD, a dehqān (landowner) of Hamadān, marzbān (governor) in the former Lakhmid capital of Ḥīra in central Iraq during the years preceding the Arab conquest of that province. Ṭabarī’s account of his governorship cites as source Hešām b. Moḥammad Kalbī and this same …

a local dynasty, most probably of Iranian origin but conceivably of Iranized Arab stock, who ruled in the principality of Čaḡānīān on the right bank of the upper Oxus in the basin of the Sorḵān river. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 764-766 ĀL-E MOḤTĀJ, a local dynasty, most probably of Iranian origin but conceivably of Iranized Arab stock, who ruled in the principality of Čaḡānīān on the right bank of the upper Oxus in the basin of the Sorḵān river (Čaḡān-rūd in Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, p. 41), first as vassals of the Samanids in the 4th/10th century a…

b. Ḵosrow-Fīrūz Šīrāzī (1046-93), last vizier of the Great Saljuq Sultan Malekšāh. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 12-13 EBN DĀROST, TĀJ-AL-MOLK ABU’L- ḠANĀʾEM MARZBĀN b. Ḵosrow-Fīrūz Šīrāzī (438-86/1046-93), last vizier of the Great Saljuq Sultan Malekšāh (r. 465-85/1072-92). Born of a secretarial family in Fārs, he served the Saljuq slave amir Qoṭb-al-Dīn Sāvtegīn in southern Persia and Iraq during the early part of Malekšāh’s reign. Sāvtegīn commended him to the sultan, who first…

b. Mūsā b. Mardawayh b. Fūrak Eṣfahānī (935-1019), scholar of Isfahan in the Buyid period, who wrote in the fields of tradition, tafsīr (Koranic exegsis), history, and geography. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 38-39 EBN MARDAWAYH (Mardūya), AHMAD b. Mūsā b. Mardawayh b. Fūrak Eṣfahānī, scholar of Isfahan in the Buyid period (323-410/935-1019), who wrote in the fields of tradition, tafsīr (Koranic exegsis), history, and geography. He studied Hadith in Iraq and in his native town and was the pupil of such leading tradit…

a small town of medieval Khorasan, in the Qara Qum, or sandy desert, between Marv and Saraḵs, 10 farsaḵs from the former, on which it was administratively dependent. A version of this article is available in print Volume VI, Fascicle 6, pp. 645 DANDĀNQĀN, a small town of medieval Khorasan, in the Qara Qum, or sandy desert, between Marv and Saraḵs, 10 farsaḵs from the former, on which it was administratively dependent (Ebn Ḵorradāḏbeh, pp. 24, 202; Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 284; Ebn Rosta, p. 279; Zhukovskiĭ, pp. 21-22, 38). The site of the settlement is now in the Repub…

b. Moḥammad (d. 1195), a leader of the Oghuz Turkmen in Khorasan and, in the latter years of the 12th century, ruler of Kermān. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 4, pp. 416 DĪNĀR, MALEK b. Moḥammad (d. 591/1195), a leader of the Oghuz Turkmen in Khorasan and, in the latter years of the 12th century, ruler of Kermān. He is first mentioned as one of the Oghuz tribal chiefs who in 548/1153 brought about the downfall of the Saljuq sultan Sanjar (511-52/1118-57) in Khorasan (Ebn al-Aṯīr, XI, p. 176). Duri ng the subsequent Oghuz …

lit., “the monastery at the bend in the river”; a medieval town in Iraq situated on the Tigris 15 farsangs (= 80 km) southeast of Baghdad. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 2, pp. 170 DAYRAL-ʿĀQŪL (lit., “the monastery at the bend in the river”; cf. Syriac ʿaqûlā “bend”; Payne Smith, II, cols. 2963-65), a medieval town in Iraq situated on the Tigris 15 farsangs (= 80 km) southeast of Baghdad. It presumably grew up around a Christian monastery, but the latter had apparently disappeared by the time of Šāboštī (10th century), who did not mention its existence in his K…

b. ʿAbd-Allāh (fl. 9th century), author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 37-38 EBN ḴORDĀḎBEH (or Ḵorradāḏbeh), ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH b. ʿAbd-Allāh (fl. 3rd/9th century), author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography. He was not, apparently, the first geographer to write in Arabic, but he is the first whose book has survived in anything like its original form. His grandfather Ḵorradāḏbeh …

The Iranian name of the family, Farīḡūn, may well be connected with that of the legendary Iranian figure Farīdūn/Afrīdūn; moreover the author of the Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, who seems to have lived and worked in Gūzgān, specifically says in his entry on the geography of Gūzgān that the malek of that region was a descendant of Afrīdūn. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 7, pp. 756-758 ĀL-E FARĪḠŪN, a minor Iranian dynasty of Gūzgān (Gūzgānān, Jūzǰān; in what is now northern Afghanistan) which flourished from some time before the beginning of th…

Elwell-Sutton’s interests and publications in Persian studies fall into five categories: Persian language; Persian literature; modern Persian history and politics; Persian folklore; and Islamic science. His Colloquial Persian and Elementary Persian Grammar have remained in print as standard works. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 372-373 ELWELL-SUTTON, LAURENCE PAUL (b. Ballylickey, Cork County, Ireland, 2 June 1912-d. Edinburgh, 2 September 1984), scholar of Islamic and modern Persia (Figure 1). Son of a…

the name both of an administrative subdistrict (dehestān) and its chef-lieu in the First Province (ostān). A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 8, pp. 847-848 ĀŠTĪĀN, the name both of an administrative subdistrict ( dehestān) and its chef-lieu in the First Province ( ostān). It lies on the northeastern side of the central Zagros mountain massif in a region traditionally known as ʿErāq (modern Arāk), and the dehestān is one of three making up the district ( baḵš) of Ṭarḵūrān in the subprovince ( šahrastān) of Arāk or Solṭānābād; the town of Arāk lies to …

(Pers. gadāʾī, takaddī, soʾāl). i. In the early centuries of the Islamic period. ii. In Sufi literature and practice. iii. In later Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 80-84 i. In the Early Centuries of the Islamic Period In early Islam, begging must have arisen in the first place from sheer economic necessity, but its continuance was soon buttressed by religious motives and, in particular, by the Sufi stress on tawakkol and toklān, utter dependence on God, which might mean resorting to mendicancy in order to survive. The early my…

river of northern Khorasan, flowing first northwest, and then southwest into the Caspian Sea. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 1, pp. 16 ATRAK, river of northern Khorasan, flowing first northwest, and then southwest into the Caspian Sea. Its course is some 320 miles (according to Ḥamdallāh Mostawfī, 120 farsaḵs); the upper two-thirds drain the wide trough between the mountain chains of the Kopet-Dag and the Kūh-e Hazār Masjed to the north and the Kūh-e ʿAlī, Kūh-e Šāh Jahān and Kūh-e Bīnālūd to the south. The Atra…

During the first century of Islam, Bāḏḡīs passed into Arab hands, together with Herat and Pūšang, around 652-53, under the caliph ʿOṯmān, for already in that year there is mentioned a rebellion against the Arabs by an Iranian noble Qāren, followed by further unrest in these regions in 661-62. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 4, pp. 370-372 i. General and the Early Period The region of Bāḏḡīs is bisected in an east-west direction by the Paropamisus mountains, which rise towards the east to 11,791 ft/5,535 m; the southern slopes d…

name of two towns: (1) a fortified city in the medieval Islamic province of Ḡūr in Central Afghanistan, which was the capital of the senior branch of the Ghurid sultans (see GHURIDS) for some sixty years in the later 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries; (2) fortress and surrounding settlement in the Damāvand region of the Alborz mountains in northern Persia. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 6, pp. 636-639 FĪRŪZKŪH,name of two towns: (1) a fortified city in the medieval Islamic province of Ḡūr in Central Afghanistan, which was the capital…

scholar and polymath of the period of the late Samanids and early Ghaznavids and one of the two greatest intellectual figures of his time in the eastern lands of the Muslim world (973-after 1050). A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 274 BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN MOḤAMMAD b. Aḥmad (362/973- after 442/1050), scholar and polymath of the period of the late Samanids and early Ghaznavids and one of the two greatest intellectual figures of his time in the eastern lands of the Muslim world, the other being Ebn Sīnā (Avicenna). BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN i. Life Bīrūnī was born i…

the official postal and intelligence service of the early Islamic caliphate and its successor states. The service operated by means of couriers mounted on mules or horses or camels or traveling on foot. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 797-798 BARĪD, the official postal and intelligence service of the early Islamic caliphate and its successor states. The service operated by means of couriers mounted on mules or horses or camels or traveling on foot. In this way, official letters and dispatches were delivered to the central dīvān in Damascus or B…

(or BANU’L-AḤRĀR), in Arabic literally “the free ones,” a name applied by the Arabs at the time of the Islamic conquests to their Persian foes in Iraq and Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 667 AḤRĀR (or BANU’L-AḤRĀR), in Arabic literally “the free ones,” a name applied by the Arabs at the time of the Islamic conquests to their Persian foes in Iraq and Iran. In a poem by the Prophet’s older contemporary, Omayya b. Abi’l-Ṣalt al-Ṯaqafī, concerning the Persian conquest of Yemen from the Ethiopian…

It is likely that substitution ciphers were used by early Persian states, for nearly identical versions were still in use in Qajar Persia. During the reigns of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah and Moḥammad Shah (1834-48) the minister Abu’l-Qāsem Qāʾemmaqām devised a number of letter-substitution codes for communicating with different princes and viziers. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 8, pp. 883-885 CODES ( romūz, sg. ramz), including the use of secret writing and cryptanalysis, in Persia. The use of codes in communications and diplomacy goes ba…

archive, register, chancery, government office; also, collected works, especially of a poet. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 4, pp. 432-438 i. THE TERM Dīvān is a Persian loan-word in Arabic and was borrowed also at an earlier date into Armenian. It is attested in Zoroastrian Middle Persian in the spellings dpywʾn and dywʾn. It has long been recognized that the word must go back to some derivative of Old Persian dipi-, (inscription, document), itself borrowed, via Elamite, from Akkadian ṭuppu and ultimately from Sumerian dub (clay tablet). Compare …

or BARDAʿA (Arm. Partav, Georgian Bardavi, Mid. Pers. Pērōzāpāt), the chief town until the 10th century of the Islamic province of Arrān, the classical Caucasian Albania. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 7, pp. 779-780 BARḎAʿA or BARDAʿA (Arm. Partav, Georgian Bardavi, Mid. Pers. Pērōzāpāt; see Marquart, Ērānšahr, pp. 117-18), the chief town until the 4th/10th century of the Islamic province of Arrān, the classical Caucasian Albania, situated two or three farsaḵs (i.e., 8-12 miles) south of the Kor river on its affluent the Ṯarṯūr (mod…

ruler of Ḵᵛārazm with the traditional title Ḵᵛārazmšāh, 521 or 522/1127 or 1128 to 551/1156. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 1, pp. 18-19 ATSÏZ ḠARČAʾĪ, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN WA’L-DAWLA ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR B. MOḤAMMAD B. ANŪŠTIGIN, ruler of Ḵᵛārazm with the traditional title Ḵᵛārazmšāh, 521 or 522/1127 or 1128 to 551/1156. His family was of Turkish ḡolām origin; his grandfather was appointed governor of Ḵᵛārazm by the Saljuq Sultan Malekšāh; and his father Qoṭb-al-dīn Moḥammad succeeded in the office. In effect, the governorship t…

a province of medieval Islamic times on the right bank of the upper Oxus river in modern Tajikistan. A region of lush pastures, Ḵottal was famed for horse-breeding. ḴOTTAL (Ḵottalan), a province of medieval Islamic times on the right bank of the upper Oxus river in modern Tajikistan. The province lay between the Vaḵšāb and Jaryāb rivers, which are the Vaḵš tributary of the Oxus (see ĀMU DARYĀ) and the upper course of the Oxus, now known as the Panj. To its west were the provinces of Vakš, Qobāḏiān and Čaḡāniān, and to its east the northeaster…

Turkish slave comꏂmander of the Ghaznavid sultans Maḥmūd and Masʿūd (d. 1040). A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 86 BEGTOḠDÏ (Turkish, lit. “a prince has been born, has arisen,” Persian Baktoḡdī), Turkish slave commander of the Ghaznavid sultans Maḥmūd and Masʿūd, d. 431/1040. His career must have begun in the reign of Maḥmūd, though it is only in the time of his son Masʿūd (421-32/1031-41) that he achieved prominence and commands. He was appointed commander-in-chief in Khorasan at…

b. Mīḵāʾīl b. Saljūq, Abū Solaymān, a member of the Saljuqs, the leading family of the Oghuz Turks, who with his brother Ṭoḡrel (Ṭoḡrïl) Beg founded the Great Saljuq dynasty in Persia in the 5th/11th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 6, pp. 617-618 ČAḠRĪ BEG DĀWŪD b. Mīḵāʾīl b. Saljūq, Abū Solaymān (b. in the 380s/990s, d. 452/1060), a member of the Saljuqs, the leading family of the Oghuz Turks, who with his brother Ṭoḡrel (Ṭoḡrïl) Beg founded the Great Saljuq dynasty in Persia in the 5th/11th century. A…

“commander, governor, prince” in Arabic. The term seems to be basically Islamic; although it does not occur in the Koran, we do find there the related concept of the “holders of authority.” A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 956-958 AMĪR, “commander, governor, prince” in Arabic. Etymologically, the Arabic root amara “to command” corresponds to the common Hebrew root āmār “to say;” the amir, as well as being the person entitled to give orders and command, thus might also be considered as the spokesman and orator of his gro…

or Govāḵarz, a district of the medieval Islamic province of Qūhestān/Qohestān in Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 5, pp. 533-534 BĀḴARZ or Govāḵarz, a district of the medieval Islamic province of Qūhestān/Qohestān (q.v.) in Khorasan, lying to the west of the middle, northerly-flowing course of the Harīrūd, with Ḵᵛāf on its west, Jām on its north, Pūšang on its east and the desert on its south. A popular etymology derived its name from bād-harza “place where the wind blows.” The medieval geographers describe Bāḵarz as a fertile region, …

the usual name in the sources for ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN or HĀRŪN BOḠRA KHAN, member of the Hasanid or eastern branch of the Qarakhanid family, ruler in Transoxania during the early 5th/11th century (d. 425/1034). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 8, pp. 887-888 ʿALĪTIGIN, the usual name in the sources for ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN or HĀRŪN BOḠRA KHAN, member of the Hasanid or eastern branch of the Qarakhanid family, ruler in Transoxania during the early 5th/11th century (d. 425/1034). We known about ʿAlītigin almost wholly through …

lit. “Persian Iraq”; the name given in medieval times to the largely mountainous, western portion of modern Persia. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 5, pp. 538 ʿERĀQ-EʿAJAM(Ī) “Persian Iraq,” the name given in medieval times to the largely mountainous, western portion of modern Persia. The geographers (Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 195; Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 357-58, tr. Kramers and Wiet, pp. 349-50; Moqaddasī, pp. 384-86; Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, p. 131; Yāqūt, Boldān [Beirut], II, p. 99) describe it as bounded by Fārs and Ḵūzestān on the south, Mesopo…

Arabic broken plural form of a singular oswār(ī), eswār(ī), early recognized by Arab philologists as a loanword from Persian meaning “cavalryman.” A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 706-707 ASĀWERA, Arabic broken plural form (the variant asāwīrāt also occurs in Yaʿqūbī, p. 202) of a singular oswār( ī), eswār( ī), early recognized by Arab philologists as a loanword from Persian meaning “cavalryman,” equivalent to Ar. fāres (cf. Jawālīqī, al-Moʿarrab, ed. Aḥmad Moḥammad Šāker, repr. Tehran, 1966, pp. 20-21). The Iranian background …

b. Masʿūd b. Maḥmūd, Ghaznavid sultan of Afghanistan and northern India (r. 1052-59). A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 323-324 FARROḴZĀD, ABŪ ŠOJĀʿ, b. Masʿūd b. Maḥmūd, Ghaznavid sultan of Afghanistan and northern India (443-52/1052-59). He succeeded in Ḡazna after the traumatic events of the reign of his uncle ʿAbd al-Rašīd (q.v.; ca. 440-43/1049-52), whose power had been usurped by the slave commander Ṭoḡrel; Ghaznavid authority was restored only after a countercoup. Farroḵzād rem…

(d. 818), high official of the early ʿAbbasids and vizier to the caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 813-33). A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 5, pp. 464-466 FAŻL, b. SAHL b. Zādānfarrūḵ (d. 202/818), high official of the early ʿAbbasids and vizier to the caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 198-218/813-33). His father Sahl was a Zoroastrian from the vicinity of Kūfa who became a Muslim and attached himself to the Barmakids (q.v.), seeking employment also for his two sons Fażl and Ḥasan. At Yaḥyā Barmakī’s prompting, Fażl…

(r. 311-52/923-63), amir in Sīstān of the Saffarid dynasty (that part of it sometimes called “the second Saffarid dynasty”). A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 641-642 AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḴALAF B. Layṯǰ, ABŪ JAʿFAR (r. 311-52/923-63), amir in Sīstān of the Saffarid dynasty (that part of it sometimes called “the second Saffarid dynasty”). The vast military empire built up by Yaʿqūb and ʿAmr b. Layṯ had been shattered by the Samanids of Transoxania, who had in 298/910-11 and again in 301/913-1…

(or ABARQŪYA), a town in northern Fārs; it was important in medieval times, but, being off the main routes, it is now largely decayed. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 1, pp. 64-67 ABARQUH i. History The Islamic geographers of the 4th/10th century describe Abarqūh as lying in the Shiraz-Isfahan-Eṣṭaḵr road, at a point where another road led off northeastwards to Yazd, and as 28 farsaḵs from Yazd, 20 from Isfahan, and 39 from Shiraz. According to Ebn Ḥawqal, Abarqūh was administratively the chief town of the nāḥīa or district of Rūdān; formerly dependent…

princely title of the rulers of Ošrūsana at the time of the Muslim conquest, the most famous of whom was Ḵeyḏār (Ḥaydar) b. Kāvūs, d. Šaʿbān, 226/May-June, 841. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 6, pp. 589-591 AFŠĪN, princely title of the rulers of Ošrūsana at the time of the Muslim conquest, the most famous of whom was Ḵeyḏār (arabicized Ḥaydar) b. Kāvūs, d. Šaʿbān, 226/May-June, 841. The term is an arabicized form of middle Persian Pišīn, Avestan Pisinah-, a proper name of uncertain etymology ( AirWb., col. 907). In pre-Islamic Iranian tradition, it i…

ASB, “horse” ( equus cabullus, Av. aspa-, Old PerS. asa- and aspa-, Mid. and NPers. asp/b); uses and significance of horses in the Iranian world. A version of this article is available in printVolume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 724-737 ASB, “horse” ( equus cabullus, Av. aspa-, Old PerS. asa- and aspa-, Mid. and NPers. asp/b).i. In Pre-Islamic IranFrom the dawn of history the Iranians have celebrated the horse in their art and in their literature.There were horses closely related to (and also the progenitors of) present-day domesticated horses living in temperate Eurasia in th…

sect of early Islam which arose out of the conflict between ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (r. 656-61) and Moʿāwiya b. Abi Sufyān (r. 661-80). A version of this article is available in print Volume XVI, Fascicle 4, pp. 434-435 KHARIJITES IN PERSIA, adherents of a sect of early Islam that arose out of the conflict between ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (q.v.; r. 35-40/656-61) and Moʿāwiya b. Abi Sofyān (r. 41-60/661-80), the fourth and the fifth caliph respectively, when their opposing armies met at Ṣeffin in 37/657. An intransigent element in ʿAli’s forces withdrew its allegiance (Ar. ḵaraja, ‘to leave’) when he ag…

Nishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the province of Khorasan. It flourished in Sasanid and early Islamic times, but after the devastations of the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, subsided into a more modest role until it revived in the 20th century. i. Historical Geography and History to the Beginning of the 20th CenturyNishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the province of Khorasan. It flourished in Sasanid and early Islamic times, but after the devastations of …

title given to various dynastic rulers of Ḵᵛārazm (see CHORASMIA).KHWARAZMSHAH i. AFRIGHIDS See ĀL-E AFRIḠ. KHWARAZMSHAH ii. MAʾMUNIDS See ĀL-E MAʾMUN. KHWARAZMSHAH iii. LINE OF ANUŠTIGIN After the Saljuq takeover in Khwarazm in the early 1040s, the Saljuq Sultans appointed various governors in the province, including Alp Arslān’s (r. 1063-72) son Arslān Arḡun, a son of the vizier Neẓām-al-Molk (1018-92), and several Turkish ḡolām commanders (see BARDA AND BARDADĀRI). One of these last was Anuštigin Ḡarčaʾi, Malek Šāh’s (r. 1073-92) ṭaštdār, or keeper of the royal washing b…