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MO ḴTAṢAR-E MOFID , a geographical compendium written under Shah Solaymān (q.v.; r. 1666-94).The Moḵtaṣar-e Mofid (hereafter cited as MM) was composed by Moḥammad Mofid Mostawfi b. Najm-al-Din Maḥmūd Bāfqi Yazdi, who also wrote the Jāmeʿ-e mofidi (hereafter cited as JM), and a work titled Majāles al-moʾmenin. It is the only known geographical text from the Safavid period and as such of extraordinary importance.  The work exists in just one manuscript version, which may be from the hand of the author himself, and comprises 276 leaves, ninete…

SHAH ṢAFI I, sixth Safavid ruler (r. 1038-52/1629-42; b. in 1020/1611; d. Monday, 12 Ṣafar 1052/12 May 1642). Background and succession.  Shah Ṣafi I, whose original name was Abu’l-Naṣr Sām Mirzā, was the son of Moḥammad-Bāqer Mirzā (also known as Ṣafi Mirza), Shah ʿAbbās I’s eldest son, and Moḥammad-Bāqer Mirzā’s Georgian wife, Delāram Ḵānom.  After his father was killed at the orders of Shah ʿAbbās (q.v.) in 1024/1615 (Eskandar Beg, pp. 883-84, tr. pp. 1098-99; Falsafi, II, pp. 175-80), Sām Mirzā grew up in the s…

QOROQ, the Mongol term qorq or qoroq (also q ūroq, or qor ūq), refers to that which is restricted, ritually forbidden, taboo. In practice, this denoted royal burial sites, forbidden ground, off-limits to outsiders and guarded by detachments of soldiers, qoroqčis, as well as kingly preserves, such as or royal hunting grounds, parks, or enclosed meadows where only royal horses were allowed to graze (Doerfer, III, pp. 344-45; Barthold and Rogers, pp. 204-05). Its meaning thus resembles the European forestem silvam, the outside woods, which in the Middle Ages came to mean an “e…