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(occasionally vocalized Daynavar), in the first centuries of Islam an important town in Jebāl, now ruined. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 4, pp. 416-417 DĪNAVAR (occasionally vocalized Daynavar), in the first centuries of Islam an important town in Jebāl, now ruined. Its site lies northeast of modern Kermānšāh, at 34° 35’ N, 47° 26’ E, on an upland plain (elev. 1,600 m) traversed by what the medieval traveler Abū Dolaf called the river of Dīnavar (p. 49, comm. pp. 93, 97). Dīnavar was an important fortified point of the Sasanian empire, to whic…

a town of medieval Islamic Fārs (modern Tall-e Bayżā), 25 miles north of Shiraz, 8 farsaḵs according to the medieval geographers and one stage east of the Sasanian and early Islamic town of Eṣṭaḵr. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 14-15 BAYŻĀ, a town of medieval Islamic Fārs, the modern village of Tall-e Bayżā. The name stems from Arabic bayżā “white,” the name of several places in the medieval Islamic world (Yāqūt, Moʿjam al-boldān, Beirut, I, pp. 529-31, names no fewer than 16) from Sind and Iran to Sicily and the Maghrib, a noun l…

ABU’L-ḤASAN or ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. JĀBER, leading Arab historian of the 9th century, whose Ketāb fotūḥ al-boldān, in particular, contains much original information on the Arab conquests of Iran. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 6, pp. 570-571 BALĀḎORĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN or ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. JĀBER, leading Arab historian of the 3rd/9th century, whose Ketāb fotūḥ al-boldān, in particular, contains much original and indispensable information on the Arab conquests of Iran. Life. The exact details of Balāḏorī’s life are shadowy, but he…

a town of the medieval Islamic province of Ahvāz (Ḵūzestān) and also the name of the district of which it was the administrative center. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 768 ʿASKAR MOKRAM (lit. Mokram’s encampment), a town of the medieval Islamic province of Ahvāz (Ḵūzestān) and also the name of the district of which it was the administrative center. The Arabic sources give various tales concerning the origin of the name. According to Balāḏorī, Fotūḥ p. 383, it was named after Moḥammad b. Moṭarref (al-Bāhelī?), a commander of Moṣʿab b.…

(849-907), the first member of the Samanid dynasty to rule over all Transoxania and Farḡāna. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 6, pp. 636-637 ESMĀʿĪL, b. Aḥmad b. Asad SĀMĀNĪ, ABŪ EBRĀHĪM (b. 234/849, d. Ṣafar 295/November 907), the first member of the Samanid dynasty to rule over all Transoxania and Farḡāna. He served almost two decades (260-79/874-92) as governor of Bukhara (q.v. ii) on behalf of his brother Naṣr, ʿAbbasid governor of Transoxania, who resided at Samarqand. In Khorasan and Trans…

B. MOḤAMMAD, 10th-century Arabic littérateur, author of a work of adab. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 895 BAYHAQĪ, EBRĀHĪM B. MOḤAMMAD, Arabic littérateur, known solely through his one book, the Ketāb al-maḥāsen wa’l-masāwī. Nothing is known of him except for what can be gleaned from this, though his forebears presumably had some connection with Bayhaq in Khorasan; he apparently wrote in the caliphate of al-Moqtader (295-320/909-12), and Brockelmann surmised that he may have belonged to the circle of Ebn al-Moʿtazz (d. 296/908; GAL, S. I, …

early 13th century military commander of the Ghurids, and connected, according to Jūzjānī, with the district of Gorzevān on the headwaters of the Morḡāb in the province of Gūzgān in northern Afghanistan. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 37 EBN ḴARMĪL, military commander of the Ghurids, and connected, according to Jūzjānī, with the district of Gorzevān on the headwaters of the Morḡāb in the province of Gūzgān in northern Afghanistan. He is first heard of as a prominent commander of the Ghurid raids into India. He was made governo…

a small settlement on the north bank of the Harirud and to the south of the Paropamisus range in northwestern Afghanistan, lying approximately 100 miles upstream from Herat in the easternmost part of the modern Herat welāyat or province. A version of this article is available in print Volume V, Fascicle 3, pp. 333 CEŠT, a small settlement on the north bank of the Harirud and to the south of the Paropamisus range in northwestern Afghanistan, lying approximately 100 miles upstream from Herat in the easternmost part of the modern Herat welāyat or province. The present form of its name is…

or Yenāl (d. 1059), early Saljuq leader. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 66 EBRĀHĪM ĪNĀL (or Yenāl; d. 451/1059), early Saljuq leader. The name Īnāl/Yenāl comes originally from an old Turkish title already attested in the early 4th/10th century by the traveler Aḥmad b. Fażlān, confirmed by Moḥammad Ḵᵛārazmī’s mention (p. 120) of yenāl-tigin as a title of the Oḡuz (Bosworth and Clauson, pp. 6, 10-11; Doerfer, Elemente IV, pp. 196-99). Ebrāhīm Īnāl is described as a uterine half-brother of Ṭoḡrel and Čaḡrī Beg, but his father m…

name of several towns in medieval sources, including the modern city. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 697-698 ASADĀBĀD (Asadābāḏ and Asadāvād in medieval Islamic sources). 1. A town in the medieval Islamic province of Jebāl, now in the ostān of Kermānšāhān (Bāḵtarān) of modern Iran. It is situated at an altitude of 5,575 ft/1,699 m, some 33.5 miles/54 km west-southwest of Hamadān on the historic Baghdad-Hamadān-Ray or Tehran highway, separated from Hamadān itself by a pass over the intervening Kūh-e…

a town in the medieval Islamic province of Mūḡān, the area southwest of the Caspian Sea and south of the Kor (Kura) and Aras (Araxes) rivers. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 5, pp. 533 BĀJARVĀN, a town in the medieval Islamic province of Mūḡān (q.v.), i.e., the area southwest of the Caspian Sea and south of the Kor (Kura) and Aras (Araxes; qq.v.) rivers. Its site is unknown, but it must have lain in what is now the extreme northeastern tip of the modern Iranian province of Azerbaijan, to the south o…

or Dawraq al-Fors; name of a district (kūra), also known as Sorraq, and of a town that was sometimes its chef-lieu in medieval Islamic times. A version of this article is available in print Volume VII, Fascicle 2, pp. 159 DAWRAQ (or Dawraq al-Fors), name of a district ( kūra; Moqaddasī, pp. 406-7), also known as Sorraq, and of a town that was sometimes its chef-lieu in medieval Islamic times. The town lay 78 km southeast of Ahvāz; its modern successor is Šādagān, situated 30° 40’ N, 48° 40’ E. According to early geographers, Dawraq was a fine and prosperous town, through which pilgri…

(or ANBĪR), a town of the medieval Islamic province of Gūzgān or Jūzǰān in northern Afghanistan, probably to be identified with the modern Sar-e Pol. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 1, pp. 6 ANBĀ R or ANBĪR, a town of the medieval Islamic province of Gūzgān or Jūzǰān in northern Afghanistan, probably to be identified with the modern Sar-e Pol. The variable spelling of the sources (in Yāqūt, I, pp. 257, 259, there are separate entries for each of the two forms) doubtless reflects a contemporary pronun…

(or ASFŌZAR), designation of a district (kūra) and later its chief town in the Herat quarter of Khorasan. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 7, pp. 748 ASFEZĀR (or ASFŌZAR), designation of a district ( kūra) and later its chief town in the Herat quarter of Khorasan. The town was more recently known as Sabzavār of Herat (to distinguish it from the Sabzavār of Khorasan near Nīšāpūr, medieval Bayhaq), and at the present time is called Šīndand. Since the administrative re-organization of 1964, it has fallen within the welāyat or provinces of Farāh. The town l…

ABŪ MŪSĀ HĀRŪN, the first Qarakhanid khan to invade the Samanid emirate from the steppes to the north in the 990s. A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 3, pp. 318-319 BOḠRĀ KHAN, ABŪ MŪSĀ HĀRŪN or Ḥasan b. Solaymān, called Šehāb-al-Dawla and Ẓahīr-al-Daʿwa, the first Qarakhanid khan to invade the Samanid emirate from the steppes to the north and to deal a severe blow at its fabric. He was the grandson of ʿAbd-al-Karīm Satūq Boḡrā Khan (d. 344/955), the first Qarakhanid to become a Muslim. In 380/990 Boḡrā Khan Hārūn occupied Esfījāb, an…

a small oasis town of central Iran (altitude 1,004 m) on the southern fringe of the Dašt-e Kavīr, 100 km southeast of Yazd in the direction of Kermān. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 4, pp. 391 BĀFQ, a small oasis town of central Iran (altitude 3,293 feet/1,004 m) on the southern fringe of the Dašt-e Kavīr, 62 miles/100 km southeast of Yazd in the direction of Kermān. Brackish water is supplied from qanāts and springs, and the main local activities are agriculture and weaving; some well-known iron deposits lie to the north of the town. …

or Barsḡān, a place in Central Asia, on the southern shores of the Ïsïq-Göl, in the region known as Semirechye or Yeti-su “the land of the seven rivers,” in what is now the Kyrgyz Republic. A version of this article is available in print Volume III, Fascicle 8, pp. 825 BARSḴĀN, or Barsḡān, a place in central Asia, on the southern shores of the Ïsïq-Göl, in the region known as Semirechye or Yeti-su “the land of the seven rivers,” in what is now the Kyrgyz Republic. In the medieval Islamic sources, the name seems also to have been applied, by a p…

(Pers. Baktūzūn), a Turkish slave general of the Samanids prominent in the confused struggles for power during the closing years of the Samanid amirate (end of the 10th century). A version of this article is available in print Volume IV, Fascicle 1, pp. 86 BEGTUZUN, Pers. Baktūzūn ( tuzun being from the Orkhon Turkish tōḏun, a title of high military rank in the Gök Turkish empire, see G. Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, Oxford, 1972, pp. 350-51), a Turkish slave general of the Samanids prominent in the confused struggles for power …

(AMĪR-E ḤARAS) “commander of the guard,” the official at the court of the ʿAbbasid caliphs and at certain of its provincial successor states who was directly responsible for policing the palace and for carrying out the caliph’s wishes. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 959 AMĪR-E ḤARAS “commander of the guard,” the official at the court of the ʿAbbasid caliphs and at certain of its provincial successor states who was directly responsible for policing the palace and for carrying out the caliph’s wishes, includ…

title of the wife of the Khwarazmshah Tekiš b. Il-Arslān (r. 1172-1200) and mother of ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Moḥammad (r. 1200-20). TERKEN (or TORKĀN) ḴĀTUN, the title of the wife of the Khwarazmshah Tekiš b. Il-Arslān (r. 1172-1200) and mother of ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Moḥammad (r. 1200-20). Terken Ḵātun (cf. Bosworth, “Terken Khātūn”) belonged to the Qanğlı group of Turks, apparently part of the Qıpčaq confederation that at this time controlled the steppes to the north of Khwarazm (see CHORASMIA) and the Aral Sea. More precisely, Nasavi claims that she ca…