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a village 32 km southeast of Isfahan on the south bank of the river Zāyandarūd. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 2, pp. 129 EZĪRĀN, a village 32 km. southeast of Isfahan on the south bank of the river Zāyandarūd. The major surviving monument is a single-domed mosque with a well-preserved dome and two lateral corridors. The interior has a traditional tripartite elevation of square chamber (interior diameter 8 meters), octagonal zone of transition (with stalactite-filled squinches), and dome supported on a sixteen-sided zone. The meḥrāb recess—from whi…

scribe active in Shiraz in the 16th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume IX, Fascicle 3, pp. 280-281 FARĪD KĀTEB, scribe active in Shiraz in the 10th/16th century. He is known exclusively through signed works. The most famous is a fine manuscript of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mīrzā’s Majāles al-ʿoššāq in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Ouseley Add. 24). The colophon is signed Farīd al-Kāteb and dated Ḏu’l-Ḥejja 959 /October-November 1552, and the fine nastaʿlīq calligraphy is embellished with a richly illuminated frontspiece and 74 (originally 75) paintings …

plasterwork or stucco. Gypsum plaster has been used as a building material in Persia for more than 2,500 years. Originally it may have been applied as a rendering to mud brick walls to protect them from the weather, but it was soon exploited for its decorative effects. A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 3, pp. 242-244 GAČ-BORĪ, plasterwork or stucco. Gypsum plaster has been used as a building material in Persia for more than 2,500 years. Originally it may have been applied as a rendering to mud brick walls to protect them fr…

(Bābūya), family of Persian builders, luster potters, and tile makers, descended from the Shiʿite scholar Ebn Bābūya al-Ṣadūq (d. 991) and active in the 12th-14th centuries. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 2 EBN BĀBAWAYH (Bābūya), family of Persian builders, luster potters, and tile makers, descended from the Shiʿite scholar Ebn Bābūya al-Ṣadūq (d. 382/991) and active in the 6th to 8th/12th to 14th centuries in central Persia. Several members are known. 1. Emām Jamāl-al-Dīn Bābūya Rāfeʿī, a builder ( meʿmār), who in 572/1176-77 rebuilt t…

Timurid builder or tile maker of the 15th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 4, pp. 429 ʿENĀYAT-ALLĀH, Timurid builder or tile maker of the 15th century. He reportedly built or decorated the dome of the Qobba-ye sabz (Green Dome) in Kermān. Sir Percy Sykes, the first European to refer to the building, reported that an inscription (now lost) was read to him stating that the building was the work of the master Ḵᵛāja Šokr-Allāh and the master ʿEnāyat-Allāh, son of the master Neẓām-al-Dīn, the architect ( meʿmār) from Isfahan, and was constructed i…

Safavid architect mentioned on two tiles: one in the dome of the tomb of Shaikh ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad at Naṭanz and another, dated 1661-62, in the south wall of the south ayvān of the congregational mosque at Isfahan. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 63 EBRĀHĪM B. ESMĀʿĪL, Safavid architect mentioned on two tiles: one in the dome of the tomb of Shaikh ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad at Naṭanz and another, dated 1072/1661-62, in the south wall of the south ayvān of the congregational mosque at Isfahan (Godard, p. 261). The latter inscription does not specify w…

Just as the text of Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh’s Jāmeʿ al-tawāriḵ can be regarded as groundbreaking historically, so too the illustrations to it are seminal for the study of art history. JĀMEʿ al-TAWĀRIḴ ii. ILLUSTRATIONS Just as the text of Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh’s Jāmeʿ al-tawāriḵ can be regarded as groundbreaking historically, so too the illustrations to it are seminal for the study of art history. Although illustrated books had been produced earlier in Persia, from the turn of the 14th century they became more common, bigger, and fan…

nesba of a father and two sons from Dāmḡān who worked as engineers, builders, and stucco carvers in the early 14th century. A version of this article is available in print Volume VI, Fascicle 6, pp. 638 DĀMḠĀNĪ, nesba of a father and two sons from Dāmḡān who worked as engineers, builders, and stucco carvers in the early 14th century. 1. Ḥosayn b. Abī Ṭāleb Dāmḡānī was responsible for most of the superb foundation inscription in cut plaster that runs around the flanged tomb tower abutting the congregational mosque at Besṭām (Blair). The inscription, one o…

Persian metalworker named in the inscription in Kufic script on the copper door knockers removed from a city gate in medieval Ganja (Soviet Kirovabad, Republic of Azerbaijan) and taken to the convent of Gelatʿi in Imeretiya, just east of Kutaisi in Georgia. A version of this article is available in print Volume VIII, Fascicle 1, pp. 66 EBRĀHĪM B. ʿOṮMĀN B. ʿANKAWAYH ḤADDĀD, Persian metalworker named in the inscription in Kufic script on the copper door knockers removed from a city gate in medieval Ganja (Soviet Kirovabad, Republic of Azerbaijan) and tak…

the charitable foundation ( abwāb al-berr) established by the physician, vizier, and historian Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh in an eastern suburb of Tabriz. RABʿ-E RAŠIDI , the charitable foundation ( abwāb al-berr) established by the physician, vizier, and historian Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh (ca. 1247-1318) in an eastern suburb of Tabriz (Wilber, no, 34, pp. 129-31). Due to Rašid-al-Din’s position as one of the chief ministers in the Il-khanid government, he accumulated a vast fortune, which he used to construct pious foundations in various places aroun…

Epigraphy (from the Greek epigráphein ‘to write on’) is the science or study of inscriptions. It is distinguished from calligraphy (lit. ‘beautiful writing’ Script and art) by the nature of the physical support on which the writing is inscribed. Epigraphy is executed on durable materials. In the Islamic lands these include buildings made of stone or brick, where the epigraphy is often carved in relief form, and portable objects made of wood, metal, ceramics, or glass and the like. Calligraphy, in co…

Kufic (Arabic kūfī) is an angular style of script used in early Islamic times for monumental inscriptions and Qurʾān manuscripts. Derived from Kūfa, the city in southern Iraq renowned for its erudition in early Islamic times, the term ‘Kufic’ was introduced to Western scholarship in the late 18th century by Jakob George Christian Adler (1756–1834), a Lutheran cleric from Schleswig who was charged with cataloguing the Qurʾānic material in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. The collection comprised a mere five fragme…

(lit. "making knot”), a form of geometric interlaced strapwork ornament that is commonly found in architecture and the minor arts throughout the Islamic world. In Persian Islamic architecture gereh-sāzī designs exist in a variety of media, particularly cut brickwork ( bannāʾī), stucco, and cut tilework (mosaic faïence). A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 5, pp. 500-504 GEREH-SĀZĪ (lit: making gereh “knot”), term used to refer to various geometric designs in woodworking and architectural decoration. i. WOODWORK Gereh-sāzī refers to two related t…

(or ESTERĀBĀD), the older Islamic name for the modern town of Gorgān in northeastern Iran, and also the name of an administrative province in Qajar times. A version of this article is available in print Volume II, Fascicle 8, pp. 838-840 ASTARĀBĀD (or ESTERĀBĀD), the older Islamic name for the modern town of Gorgān in northeastern Iran, and also the name of an administrative province in Qajar times. i. History The district and province. This lies at the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea, and is essentially a lowland and piedmont area, rather drier in climate and…

of art objects and manuscripts. i. Introduction. ii. Of Pre-Islamic Art Objects. iii. Of Islamic Art. iv. Of Manuscripts. A version of this article is available in print Volume X, Fascicle 1, pp. 90-100 FORGERIES i. INTRODUCTION FORGERIES of art objects and manuscripts. Forgeries have had a long and varied history, occurring in such diverse fields as genealogies, official documents and letters, title deeds, false literary attributions, and manuscripts and paintings. Fabricated genealogies. Early in the Islamic era, Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (see BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN) described in his al-Aṯār…

a town on the Caspian shore in the southwest of the modern province of Māzandarān, medieval Ṭabarestān. A version of this article is available in print Volume I, Fascicle 9, pp. 980-982 i. History In classical times, Āmol (Old Pers. *Āmṛda) fell within the province of Hyrcania, and in Alexander the Great’s time it was the home of the Mardoi or Amardoi, possibly a people of the pre-Iranian substratum, who were subjugated by the Parthian king Phraates I ca. 176 B.C. In the Sasanian period, Kavād’s eldest son Kāvūs was made ruler o…

(now referred to officially as Gonbad-e Kāvus) is the administrative center of the sub-province ( šahrestān) of the same name and the urban center of the Turkman tribal area in northern Persia. It is named after its major monument, a tall tower that marks the grave of the Ziyarid ruler Qābus b. Vošmgir (r. 978-1012). A version of this article is available in print Volume XI, Fascicle 2, pp. 126-129 GONBAD-E QĀBUS (KĀVUS), city and sub-province in the Golestān Province. i. GEOGRAPHY The city of Gonbad-e Qābus (now referred to officially as Gonbad-e Kāvus) is the administrative…

(p.), the Persian term for the mineral generally termed jade. This is made up of one or the other hard, fine-grained translucent stones jadeite or nephrite, the first a silicate of sodium and aluminum and the second a silicate of calcium and magnesium. Both may be white or colourless, but are often found in a variety of other colours, such as green, brown, yellow, etc., because of the presence of traces of other elements such as iron, chromium and manganese. 1. In Islamic history. Nephrite was known to Eastern Turkic peoples as ¶ kas̲h̲ (see Clauson, An etymological dictionary of pre-thirt…