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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…