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, the tak̲h̲alluṣ of awḥad al-dīn muh. b. muh. (? or ʿalī b. maḥmūd ) ḵh̲āwarānī , proclaimed in a well-known bayt to be master of the Persian ḳaṣīda . Of his life little is known for certain except that he became one of the court poets of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultan Sand̲j̲ar (d. 1157) at some period towards the end of the prince’s life and that he was writing ḳaṣīdas in 540/1145—two of them being thus dated—when he must still have been quite young. He was born in the district of Ḵh̲āwarān in Ḵh̲ūrāsān and received part of his education at the Manṣuriyya madrasa in Ṭūs. Either whi…

(p.), a kind of food compounded of the liver of gazelles or almonds, etc. A daily portion of the size of a pistachio ( pista ) is taken by those derwīs̲h̲es and others who undertake long fasts, e.g. the čilla or fortyday fast, and is sufficient to maintain life. (R. Levy) Bibliography Vullers, Lexicon Persico-Latinum, s.v. pist, čilla.

(p.), skin, Turkish pōst or pōstakī , a tanned sheepskin, used as the ceremonial seat or throne of a pīr or s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of a dervish order. The head, sides and foot had mystical significances ascribed to them. It corresponds to the Arabic bisāṭ . According to Ewliyā Čelebi (Istanbul 1314/1896-7, i, 495), the murīd , after passing the test by the pīr, is called ṣāḥib pūst . On ceremonial occasions amongst the Bektās̲h̲ī order, the hall or convent was said to have been set out with twelve pūsts of white sheepskin in remembrance of the twelve Imāms or standing symbolicall…

(p.), New (Year’s) Day, frequently represented in Arabic works in the form Nairūz (Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ al-Aʿs̲h̲ā, ii. 408). It was the first day of the Persian solar year and is not represented in the Muslim lunar year (Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲, iii. 416 sq.). In Achaemenid times the official year began with Nawrūz, when the sun entered the Zodiacal Sign of Aries (the vernal equinox). Popular and more ancient usage however would appear to have regarded the midsummer solstice as Nawrūz (Bīrūnī, Chronology, transl. Sachau, p. 185, 201). It was the time of harvest and was celebrated…

, Amīr-i Niẓām or Amīr-i Kabīr, was born at Farāhān of humble parents, his father having been first the cook and then the steward of the Ḳāʾim Maḳām, Mīrzā Abu ’l-Ḳāsim, who ended his life as the first minister of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh Ḳād̲j̲ār (1834-1848). In 1829, as a young menial, Taḳī Ḵh̲an accompanied the Persian Commander-in-Chief on the Mission which was sent to St. Petersburg after the murder at Ṭihrān of the Russian ambassador Grebaiodoff. On his return to Persia after this visit to Europe, he was promoted to be a mīrzā or writer, and subsequently was advanced to the rank of k̲h̲ā…

(a.), defined by Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ānī ( Taʿrīfāt, ed. Flügel, p. 154) as “[Action or belief] in which persons persist with the concurrence of the reasoning powers and which their natural dispositions agree to accept [as right]”. It stands therefore to represent unwritten custom as opposed to established law, s̲h̲arʿ (cf. Māwardī, ed. Enger, p. 5; Bābur-nāma, ed. Beveridge, f. 124b, line 7; transl., p. 194) though attempts have not been lacking to regard it as one of the uṣūl (cf. Goldziher, Ẓāhiriten, p. 204 sq). It is sometimes held to be equivalent to case law or common law. This ma…

, the Bābī heroine and one of the original apostles of the Bābī faith. The date of her birth is uncertain and the sources are not very explicit with regard to the order of the events of her life. Her father, Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ Mullā Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, was an influential mud̲j̲- tahid of Ḳazwīn, but he was at one time the friend of Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Saiyid Kāẓim of Res̲h̲t, the chief disciple and the successor of S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Aḥmad Aḥsāī,ʾ founder of the S̲h̲aik̲h̲ī sect ( Nuḳṭat al- Kāf, ed. E. G. Browne, G. M. S., xv., 1910, p. 139). It was from the Saiyid that she first heard of the new teachings and …

or pōst (P.), skin; Turkish: pōstakī; a tanned sheepskin, used as the ceremonial seat or throne of a pīr or s̲h̲aik̲h̲ of a derwīs̲h̲ order. The head, sides and foot had mystical significances ascribed to them. It corresponds to the Arabic bisāṭ. According to Ewliyā Čelebi (Stambul, i. 495), the murīd, after passing the test by the pīr, is called ṣāḥib pūst. On ceremonial occasions amongst the Baktas̲h̲ī order, the hall or convent was set out with twelve pūsts of white sheepskin in remembrance of the twelve imāms. (R. Levy) Bibliography J. P. Brown, The Darvishes, Oxford 1927 G. Jacob, in Türki…

, a form of poetry in which each bait (verse) is normally a self-contained whole, grammatically complete and with the two miṣrāʿs (hemistichs) rhyming with one another and not — except accidentally — with the verses that follow. In Persian, Turkish, Turkī and Urdu, poetic compositions of any length dealing with epic, romantic, ethical or didactic themes are of the mat̲h̲nawī form, which probably originated in Persia. Dawlats̲h̲āh (ed. E. G. Browne, p. 29) relates a tradition that in the time of the Dailamite ʿAḍud a…

(P.), a kind of food compounded of the liver of gazelles or almonds etc. A daily portion of the size of a pistachio ( pistah) is taken by those derwīs̲h̲es and others who undertake long fasts, e. g. the čilla or forty-day fast, and is sufficient to maintain life. (R. Levy) Bibliography Vullers, Lexicon Persico-Latinum, s. v. pist čilla.

, an official in charge of government accounts. Under the Turkish systems, e. g. under the G̲h̲aznawids and Sald̲j̲ūḳs, the title was borne by a functionary of high rank who was at the head of the dīwān concerned with keeping the tally of public income and expenditure. Under the Niẓām al-Mulk the office of the mustawfī was second only to that of the vizier (Bundārī, ed. Houtsma, p. 100) and appears to have corresponded to the dīwān al-zimām or dīwān al-azimma, the “Bureau of (Financial) Control” of the ʿAbbāsids (Ṭabarī, iii. 522), although the Sald̲j̲ūḳs also had a dīwān of this name tenabl…

( pe); bā’-i fārsī or bāʾ-i ʿad̲j̲amī: the bāʾ with three points subscript, invented for Persian as supplement to the soft Arabic bāʾ and to represent the hard labial. It is sometimes interchangeable with bāʾ (e. g. asp and asb, dabīr and dapīr) and, more frequently, with fāʾ (e. g. sapīd and safīd, Pārs and Fārs). The regular use of the letter in manuscripts is comparatively modern, but it is found in good ones of the viith—xiiith century while at the same time it is often omitted in manuscripts of much later date ( G. I. Ph., 1/iv., p. 74). (R. Levy)

, a system of land-taxation under the caliphs by which the bait al-māl received not an annual money-payment, irrespective of whether the land bore or not, but a share in kind of the crops actually grown. In ʿIrāḳ the system was introduced under the early ʿAbbāsids (al-Mahdī or al-Manṣūr; cf. Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ ed. de Goeje, p. 272; Māwardī, ed. Enger, p. 136; von Kremer, Culturgeschichte, i. 276) instead of the older k̲h̲arād̲j̲ system of money-payments. The tax was levied on the principal crops only, wheat and barley, and not on the less important crops or on frui…

1. A term connected with land-revenue and used in the registers of the dīwān al-k̲h̲arād̲j̲ (cf. Ḵh̲wārizmī, Mafātīḥ al-ʿUlūm, p. 92). 2. The name for a regular system of extortion practised by the caliphs (e. g. Muḳtadir and Mutawakkil) in the time of the ʿAbbāsid decline. By it they obtained money for themselves and the bait al-māl from ministers ¶ and others who had become rich at the public expense (cf. Margoliouth, Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, i. 129, 141; Ṭabarī, iii., p. 374). The fine was sometimes accompanied by torture but was in any event not considered …

, a town and port at the head of the Persian Gulf and in the Persian province of ʿArabistān. It lies on the right bank of the Ḥaffār channel (formerly called Nahr Bayān) which connects the Kārūn river with the S̲h̲aṭṭ al-ʿArab. The original village from which the town grew appears to have lain on the left bank of the channel, on the island of ʿAbbādān [q. v.], and Muhammara is probably therefore not to be identified with the town of Bayān, though it now lies on the same site. Further, Bayān was …

or Mirzā, a Persian title, from Mīr-zāda or Amīr-zāda, and originally meaning “born of a prince” (cf. Malik-zāda and Farhang-zāda, which occur in Saʿdī etc.). The title, in addition to bearing its original significance, was also given to noblemen and others of good birth, thus corresponding to the Turkish Āg̲h̲ā. Since the time of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s conquest of India it has been further applied to educated men outside of the class of mullās or ʿulamāʾ. In modern times the title is placed after the name of a prince, and before the name of other persons bearing it: e. g. Ḥusain Mīrzā “Prince Ḥusain”…

, a Persian title abbreviated from the Arabic amīr and approximating in meaning both to it and to the title mīrzā [q. v.], (For the dropping of the initial alif, cf. Bū Sahl for Abū Sahl etc.). Like amīr the title is applied to princes (Minūčihrī, ed. Biberstein-Kazimirski, 1886, p. 96, speaks of Masʿūd, Sulṭān of G̲h̲azna, as “Mīr”), but it is also borne by poets and other men of letters (e.g. Mīr ʿAlī S̲h̲īr, Mīr Ḵh̲wānd, Mīr Muḥsin; cf. the following art.). In India, Saiyids sometimes call themselves by the title. As a common noun, it is used as an equivalent of ṣāḥib, e. g. mīr pand̲j̲, ¶ mīr āk̲h̲ w…

, Abu ’l-Nad̲j̲m Aḥmad b. Yaʿḳūb, Persian poet, nicknamed S̲h̲aṣt-galla = “sixtyherds”, because of the wealth he accumulated in horses and cattle; but some say the name should be read S̲h̲ast-kul or S̲h̲ast-kula i. e. “crooked-thumb”. He was a native of Dāmg̲h̲ān, calling himself “Dāmg̲h̲ānī” in his verse although Dawlats̲h̲āh says he came from Balk̲h̲. He was a younger contemporary and imitator of ʿUnṣurī [q. v.], but he is considered to have excelled his model in poetic power. After completing his studies under Abu ’l-Farad̲…

(a.), “reviewer of wrongs”. His office “combined the justice of the ḳāḍī with the power of the sovereign” and was instituted by the later Umaiyads, who sat in person to receive petitions complaining of ẓulm. The early ʿAbbāsids, from Mahdī to Muhtadī, followed their example (Māwardī, p. 129; Baihaḳī, Kitāb al-Maḥāsin wa ’l-Masāwī, ed. Schwally, p. 577; Masʿūdī, Murūd̲j̲, viii. 21; Ṭabarī, iii. 1736), but after them the duty was undertaken by the vizier, whose failure to carry it out was regarded as a serious fault (ʿArīb, ed. de Goeje, p. 25). At Bag̲h̲dād the Caliph Muḳtadir ordered the ṣāḥi…

(P.), elder. In the Ṣūfī system he is the murs̲h̲id, the “spiritual director”. He claims to be in the direct line of the interpreters of the esoteric teaching of the Prophet and hence holds his authority to guide the aspirant ( murīd) on the Path. But he must himself be worthy of imitation. “He should have a perfect knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of the three stages of the mystical life and be free of fleshly attributes”. When a pīr has proved — either by his own direct knowledge or by the spiritual power ( wilāyat) inherent in him — the fitness of a murīd to associate with other Ṣūfī’…