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, “Country of the S̲h̲ūl’, a district ( bulūk) in the province of Fārs. Three epochs must be distinguished in the history of the district: one before the arrival of the S̲h̲ūl, the period of their rule (from the viith/xiiith centuries), and the period of its occupation by the Mamassanī Lūrs about the beginning of the xiith/xviiith century. During the Sāsānid period the district was included in the kūra of S̲h̲āpūr-k̲h̲ūra. The founding of its capital Nawbandagan (Nawband̲j̲ān) is attributed to S̲h̲āpūr I. This important town situated on the road from Fārs to Ḵh̲…

, a people of South Caucasian stock (Iberic, “Georgian”) now dwelling in the southeast corner of the shores of the Black Sea. The ancient history of the Laz is complicated by the uncertainty which reigns in the ethnical nomenclature of the Caucasus generally; the same names in the course of centuries are applied to différents units (or groups). The fact that the name Phasis was applied to the Rion, to the Čorok̲h̲ (the ancient Akampsis) and even to the sources of the Araxes also creates difficulties. The earliest Greek writers do not mention the Laz. The name Λαξοί, Λᾶξοι is only…

(or Warām, cf. Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am, iv. 918), a town about 40 miles (Yāḳūt, c. 30 mīl) S.S.W. of Ṭeherān, now the capital of the district of Ḵh̲wār-wa-Warāmīn. The plain of Warāmīn watered by canals trom the Ḏj̲ād̲j̲arūd is regarded as the granary of Ṭeherān. The town lies to the south of the great road from Raiy to Ḵh̲urāsān passing via Ḵh̲wār (near Ḳis̲h̲lāḳ?) and Simnān (cf. Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 22; only in the Mongol period did the road from Sulṭānīya to Ḵh̲urasān run via Raiy-Warāmīn-Ḵh̲wār: Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb, p. 173). On the other hand in the ninth and tenth centuries, Raiy wa…

(Lenkoran), the capital of the district of the same name in the province of Bākū. Lankoran is the Russian pronunciation of the name which was at one time written Langar-kunān (anchorage), or perhaps Langar-kanān (place which pulls out the anchors) which is pronounced Länkärān in Persian and Lankōn in Tālig̲h̲ī The ships of the Bākū-Enzelī [q. v.] line call at Lankoran, which has an open roadstead but at 8 miles N. E. of the town is the island of Sarā, which has an excellent roadstead which shelters the ships in bad weather. In the district of Lankoran, de Morgan found monuments of very…

, a town in Persian ʿIrāḳ, about ten miles west of the watershed between the Zand̲j̲ān [q. v.], which runs to the Ḳi̊zi̊l-Üzän and the Abhar, which loses itself in the direction of Ṭeherān. The old Persian name of the canton of Sulṭānīya was S̲h̲āhrūyāz. It was originally a dependency of Ḳazwīn. The Mongols called this district Ḳung̲h̲ur-ölöng (“the prairie of the Alezans”: there is still a village called “Öläng” S.E. of Sulṭānīya). Sulṭānīya is about 5,000-5,500 feet above sea-level. The coolne…

, a town in Turkey on the Armenian plateau on the eastern shore of Lake Wān. The name Wān is not found in the Arabic sources which deal with the Muslim conquest. Lake Wān is usually named by the Arabs after the towns on the northern shore, Ard̲j̲īs̲h̲ and Ak̲h̲lāṭ. Ibn Ḥawḳal alone (p. 250) mentions the Artsrunid Ibn Dairānī, lord of Zawazān, of Wān and Wosṭān. Yāḳūt, iv. 895, mentions a fortress of Wān but makes it a dependency of Erzerum and locates it between Ak̲h̲lāṭ and Tiflis (?). For the Muslim conquest of Armenia see that article. The important fact is the campaign of Bug̲h̲ā…

(Özbek) b. Muḥammad Pahlawān b. Ildegiz (Eldigüz?), fifth and last atābek of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān (607—622 = 1210—1225). According to Yāḳūt, Uzbek’s laḳab was Muẓaffar al-Dīn. His mother and that of his elder brother Abū Bakr were slaves, while the two other sons of Pahlawān, Ḳutlug̲h̲-Inanč and Amīrmīrān, were born of the princess Inanč-Ḵh̲ātūn. Uzbek married Malika-Ḵh̲ātūn, wife of the last Sald̲j̲ūḳ Sulṭān Tug̲h̲ri̊l II, by whom he had a son (Ṭug̲h̲ri̊l). Like all the reigns in periods of transition, Uzbek’s was a very troubled one. Before his accession to the thro…

, “land of the Lurs”, a region in the S.W. of Persia. In the Mongol period the terms “Great Lur” and “Little Lur” roughly covered all the lands inhabited by Lur tribes. Since the Ṣafawid period, the lands of the Great Lur have been distinguished by the names of Kūh-Gīlū and Bak̲h̲tiyārī. At the beginning of the xviiith century the Mamasani confederation occupied the old S̲h̲ulistān [q. v.] and thus created a third Lur territory between Kūh-Gīlū and S̲h̲īrāz. It is however only since the xvith century that Lur-i Kūčik [q. v.] has been known as Luristān (for greater precision it w…

, a mystic and poet who wrote in a Persian dialect. According to Riḍā Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān (xixth century), who does not give his source, Bābā Ṭāhir lived in the period of Dailamī rule and died in 401 (1010). Among his quatrains there is an enigmatical one: “I am that sea ( baḥr) which entered into a vase; that point which entered into the letter. In each alf (“thousand”, i. e. of years?) arises an alif-ḳadd (a man upright in stature like the letter alif). I am the alif-ḳadd who has come in this alf”. Mahdī Ḵh̲ān in the J. A. S. Bengal has given an extremely curious interpretation of this quatrain: the letters alf-ḳ…

, a town and district in Persian Kurdistān, administered sometimes from Senne, sometimes from Tabrīz and situated on the upper Ḏj̲ag̲h̲ātū east of Bāne. The inhabitants are Kurds (Mukrī). In religion they are S̲h̲āfiʿī Sunnīs; there are also adepts of the Naḳs̲h̲bandī S̲h̲aik̲h̲s. The family of local Ḵh̲āns is related to that of the Wālīs of Ardilān. The town has 1200 houses, 2 mosques, a bazaar, etc. The district (with its dependency Mīrede) comprises 360 villages. According to the census of 1296 a. h., there were 34,024 people in the district. The government taxes amounted t…

famous Persian scientist and poet of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ period (d. in 526 = 1132). Biography. Although reliable information on Ḵh̲aiyām is still scarce we cannot underestimate the importance of the sources at present available. In his Algebra he calls himself Abu ’l-Fatḥ ʿOmar b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḵh̲aiyāmī and in his verses seems to use Ḵh̲aiyām (“tent-maker”) as his tak̲h̲alluṣ. It is likely that this nickname refers to the profession of his ancestors. W. Litten, in his pamphlet Was bedeutet Chajjām? Warum hat O. Chajjām... gerade diesen Dichternamen gewählt?, Berlin 1930 (25 p.), has sugg…

(Tat), a Turkish word, meaning “the foreign elements included in the lands of the Turks” (Thomsen). 1. The term has a rather complicated history. Its occurrence in the Ork̲h̲on inscriptions (viiith century) was first noticed by Vambéry ( Noten su d. alttürk. Inschriften Mém. Soc.Finno-Ougr, xii., Helsingfors 1899, p. 88—89). Thomsen ( Turcica, ibid., xxxvii., 1916, p. 15) proposed to translate the words on oḳ og̲h̲liña tatiña tägi, “up to the sons of the Ten Arrows (r= The Western Turks) and their tāt (= their subjects of foreign origin)”. Thomsen passes over the question of …

, a town in Persian Kurdistān, bounded by Hamadān, Dīnawar and Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. The Arab geographers place Sīsar on the Dīnawar-Marāg̲h̲a road 20—22 farsak̲h̲s (3 stages) north of Dīnawar (Ibn Ḵh̲urdād̲h̲bih, p. 119—121; Ḳudāma, p. 212; Muḳaddasī, p. 382). According to Balād̲h̲urī (ed. de Goeje, p. 310), Sīsar occupied a depression ( k̲h̲ifāḍ) surrounded by 30 mounds, whence its Persian name “30 summits”. For greater accuracy it was called Sīsar of Ṣadk̲h̲āniya ( wakāna Sīsar tudʿā Sīsar Ṣadk̲h̲āniya) which Balād̲h̲urī correctly explains as Sīsar of the hundred springs: Ḵh̲ānī in…

(original Iranian form Tōs, in Arabic transcription Ṭūs), a district in Ḵh̲urāsān. In the historical period Tūs was the name of a district containing several towns. The town of Nawḳān flourished down to the end of the third (ninth) century. The form Nawḳan < Nōḳan is confirmed by the present name of the Mes̲h̲hed quarter Noug̲h̲ān (where the dipthong ou corresponds to the old wāw-i mad̲j̲hūl, i. e. ō). At a later date, the other town Ṭābarān became more important and was considerably extended so that the original Ṭābarān seems to have become one of the faubourgs…

(older Sāwad̲j̲), a town and district in Central Persia. It lies on the direct road from Ḳazwīn to Ḳum (Ḳazwīn-Sāwa: 22 farsak̲h̲; Sāwa-Ḳum: 9 farsak̲h̲). This road practically corresponds with the royal road (S̲h̲āhrāh) described by Mustawfī (Sūmg̲h̲ān [?] -Sagzābād-Sāwa-Iṣfāhān) which was very important when, under the Mongols Arg̲h̲ūn and Uld̲j̲aitū, Sulṭānīya became the capital of Persia. The Ḳazwīn-Sāwa road may yet again resume its old importance for traffic between North Persia and the sou…

(S̲h̲ig̲h̲nān), a district on the upper Oxus (Pand̲j̲); the part on the left bank now belongs to Afg̲h̲ān Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān [q. v.] and that on the right to the Russian Pamir. The districts of G̲h̲ārān and Rōs̲h̲ān, the one above and the other below S̲h̲ug̲h̲nān are also divided into two by the political frontier. Afg̲h̲ān S̲h̲ug̲h̲nān has fifteen villages with four hundred houses and six thousand inhabitants, its administrative centre is at Yāwurda in the little valley of Udyar. Russian S̲h̲ug̲h̲n…

, 1. the most southern group of Kurd tribes in Persia. According to Zain al-ʿĀbidīn their name (Lāk, often Lākk) is explained by the Persian word läk (100,000) which is said to have been the original number of families of Lak. The group is of importance as the Zand dynasty arose from it. The Lak now living in Northern Lūristān are sometimes confused with the Lūr (Zain al-ʿĀbidīn), whom they resemble from the somatic and ethnical point of view. The facts of history however show that the Lak have immigrated to their presen…

, “celestial sphere”, nom de plume ( tak̲h̲alluṣ) of the Persian historian and man ofletters, Mīrzā Muḥammad Taḳī of Kās̲h̲ān. After a studious youth spent in his native town he settled definitely in Ṭihrān, where he found a patron in the poet-laureate ( malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ) of Fatḥ ʿAlī Ḵh̲ān. On his accession (1250 = 1834) Muḥammad S̲h̲āh appointed him his private panegyrist ( maddāḥ-i k̲h̲āṣṣa) and secretary and accountant in the treasury ( muns̲h̲ī wa-mustawfī-i dīwān). The same S̲h̲āh entrusted him with the composition of a universal history. Nāṣir al-Dīn S̲h̲āh a…

, the capital of Georgia and also the eastern part of Georgia (Kharthlia). The Name. In Georgian the town is called Tphilisi or Thbilisi which is usually explained as derived from tphili “hot” (referring to the hot springs of Tiflis), in Armenian Tphk̲h̲is (Tphlis), ¶ in Arabic Taflīs (Balād̲h̲urī: Ṭaflīs). Among similar names we may note the town ΘιλβίΣ or ΘάλβιΣ; mentioned by Ptolemy v., ch. 11 to the N. E. of Abania, i. e. in Dag̲h̲estān and the place called Taflīs to the south of Lake Urmia [cf. Ḳudāma, p. 213: the road running from D…

(Těhrān), 1. the capital of Persia. The name. The Arab spelling Ṭihrān survived down to the beginning of the xxth century. The Arabs frequently rendered by ṭ the initial t of Persian names (aspiration?). The Arab Yāḳūt however admits the pronunciation Tihrān; the Persian Zakarīyā Ḳazwīnī only gives this form. The short i in modern Persian is regularly pronounced like a short e, whence the European transcriptions Teheran etc. (already in Clavijo and della Valle; Chardin: Théran). The pronunciation Tährān is unknown in Persia but the Turks of Constantinople,…

(Us̲h̲nuh, Us̲h̲nūya), a district and town in Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. Us̲h̲nū lies to the south of Urmiya [q. v.] from which it has usually been administered. The district is watered by the upper course of the river Gādir (Gader) which, after traversing the district of Sulduz [q. v.], flows into Lake Urmiya on the S. W. To the south of Us̲h̲nū is the district of Lāhid̲j̲ān which is administered from Sawd̲j̲-Būlāḳ [q. v.]. The town of Us̲h̲nū (710 houses) is situated on the left bank of the Gādir (Čom…

, the name of several groups of Turkish tribes in Persia. The term means in Turkish “those who love the S̲h̲āh”. Persian historians write: s̲h̲āhīsēwan, thus indicating the Turkish accusative ( s̲h̲āhi̊) and the Turkish closed e. History. According to Malcolm, S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās I (995—1037 = 1587—1628), in order to reduce the turbulent Turkish tribes known as ḳi̊zi̊l-bas̲h̲ (= “red-heads”), who played the part of praetorians, invited the men of all the tribes to enrol themselves in a new body which was called S̲h̲āh-sewan. Entirely devoted to the Ṣafawī f…

, (the “sinner”), pseudonym ( tak̲h̲alluṣ) of S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl [q. v.]. Of his Persian po ems we only know so far the single verse quoted in the anthology compiled by his son Sām Mīrzā [q.v.] and some other lines. On the other hand his Turkish Dīwān is known from several manuscripts, although these are rather scarce and differ considerab y. E. G. Browne ( Persian Liter, in Modern Times, p. 12—13) has discovered the curious fact that the founder of the Ṣafawī kingdom wrote mainly in Turkish while his rival Sulṭān Selīm used Persian for his poems. Ḵh̲aṭāʾī is now ri…

, a S̲h̲īʿī Arab dynasty of Ḥawīza [q. v.] in Ḵh̲ūzistān. The town of Ḥawīza (or Ḥuwaiza; Ibn Battūta, ii. 93: ) was situated in E. Long. 31° 25′, Lat. 48° 5′ on the old course of the Kark̲h̲a [q. v.] where the latter turned west. The founder of the dynasty, Saiyid Muḥammad b. Falāḥ, according to the genealogists, was a descendant in the fourteenth generation from the seventh imam Mūsā al-Kāẓim. S. Muḥammad was born at Wāsiṭ and studied at Ḥilla with S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Aḥmad b. Fahd, known for his leanings to mysticism. The ixth (xvth) century is important in the history of the S̲h̲īʿī g̲h̲ulāt (the rising…

, an Indian(?) deity, of whom there was a famous idol at Zamīn-Dāwar in the country of Zābul, east of Sīstān. In 33 (654—55) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Samura, appointed governor of Sīstān, arrived at Dāwar and laid siege to the hill of Zūn (* d̲j̲abal al-Zūn). He entered the sanctuary of Zūn where there was an idol of gold with two rubies for eyes. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān cut off an arm and took away the rubies but left the remainder to the local marzubān, saying that his only object was to show the impotence of the idol (Balād̲h̲urī, p. 394). Marquart found in Chinese sources a mention of the temple of Deva …

(S̲h̲akkāk), a Kurdish tribe on the Turco-Persian frontier. In Persia to the west of Lake Urmiya before the war they occupied the cantons of Brādōst, Somāi [q. v.], Čehrīḳ (cf. salmās) and Ḳotūr; in Turkey, the eastern districts of the wilāyet of Wān: Sarāi (Maḥmūdī) and Albaḳ (Bas̲h̲ḳalʿa), i.e. the territory which in the xvith century belonged to the Dumbulī tribe ( S̲h̲araf-nāma, i. 313—314). The name of the tribe is written by Yūsuf Ḍiyā al-Dīn: S̲h̲ikākān and by S̲h̲īrwānī: S̲h̲akāk; Ḵh̲urs̲h̲īd Efendī writes “S̲h̲iḳāḳī or S̲h̲ikākī”. To the south of Lak…

(S̲h̲i̊ḳāg̲h̲i̊), a tribe of Kurdish origin. According to Yūsuf Ḍiyā al-Dīn, the word s̲h̲iḳāḳī means in Kurdish a beast which has a particular disease of the foot. According to the S̲h̲araf-nāma (i. 148), the S̲h̲aḳāḳī were one of the four warrior tribes, ( ʿas̲h̲īrat) in the nāhiya of Finlk of the principality of Ḏj̲azīra. According to the Ottoman sāl-nāma, there were Kurdish S̲h̲aḳāḳī in the nāḥiya of S̲h̲eik̲h̲ler in the ḳaḍā of Ḳillīs in ¶ the wilāyet of Aleppo (cf. Spiegel, Eran. Altertumskunde, i, 744). The nāḥiya S̲h̲aḳāḳ of the Ḏj̲ihānnumā (between Mukus and Ḏj̲ulāmerg) is c…

, the Russians; at first the Normans, then the founders of the dukedom of Kiev. The Rūs of the west. In his description of Spain Yaʿḳūbī, B.G.A., vii. 354, says that in 229 (843—844) “the Mad̲j̲ūs called Rūs” invaded Seville and committed all kinds of depredations. The name Mad̲j̲ūs [q. v.] is regularly applied to the Normans. The name even passed into the Spanish Primera Crónica General (xiiith century) according to which the Almuiuces were worshippers of fire (!). The origin of this use of mad̲j̲ūs is obscure. Did the Arabs and Spaniards allude to such rites as the cremation o…

(in Arabic usually taken as al-lān ), an Iranian people (Alān < Aryan) of Northern Caucasus, formerly attested also east of the Caspian sea (see al-Bīrūnī, Taḥdīd al-Amākin , ed. A. Z. Validi, in Bīrūnī’s Picture of the world, 57), as supported by local toponymy. The Alān are mentioned in history from the 1st century A.D. In 371 they were defeated by the Huns. Together with the Vandals, a part of the Alāns migrated to the West across France and Spain, and finally took part in the creation of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa (418-5…

, the Persian and Turkish name of a town, in Georgian ak̲h̲al tsik̲h̲e , "New Fortress", situated on the Posk̲h̲ov river (left tributary of the upper Kur), centre of the Georgian province Samtsk̲h̲e (later Sa-atabago) which is mentioned among the conquests of Ḥabīb b. Maslama (under Muʿāwiya), al-Balād̲h̲urī, 203. ¶ Under the Mongols the local rulers (of the Ḏj̲akilʿe family) became autonomous and received the title of atabegs . The name Ḳurḳūra found in Persian and Turkish sources refers to these rulers of whom several bore the name of Ḳuarḳuare (see Brosset, Histoire de la Géorgie …

, “land of the Lurs”, a region in the south-west of Persia. In the Mongol period the terms “Great Lur” and “Little Lur” roughly covered all the lands inhabited by Lur tribes. Since the Ṣafawid period, the lands of the Great Lur have been distinguished by the names of Kūh-Gīlū and Bak̲h̲tiyārī. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Mamāsanī confederation occupied the old S̲h̲ūlistān [ q.v.] and thus created a third Lur territory between Kūh-Gīlū and S̲h̲īrāz. It is however only since the 16th century that Lur-i Kūčik [ q.v.] has been known as Luristān (for greater precision it was …

(in Persian Lor with o short), an Iranian people living in the mountains in southwestern Persia. As in the case of the Kurds, the principal link among the four branches of the Lurs (Mamāsanī, Kūhgīlūʾī, Bak̲h̲tiyārī and Lurs proper) is that of language. The special character of the Lur dialects suggests that the country was Iranicised from Persia and not from Media. On the ancient peoples, who have disappeared, become Iranicised or absorbed in different parts of Luristān, see luristān . The name. Local tradition ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i guzīda ) connects the name of the …

, a dynasty of princes of Marāg̲h̲a. Distinction must be made between the eponym Aḥmadīl and his successors. Aḥmadīl b. Ibrāhīm b. Wahsūdān al-Rawwādī al-Kurdī was a descendant of the local branch of the originally Arab family of Rawwād (of Azd) established in Tabrīz (see rawwādids ). In the course of time the family became Kurdicized, and even the name Aḥmadīl is apparently formed with an Iranian (Kurdish) diminutive suffix -īl . Aḥmadīl took part in the anti-Crusade of 505/1111. During the siege of Tell Bās̲h̲ir, Jocelyn made an arrangement …

, geographically speaking, the highlands of Gīlān [ q.v.]. In the south, the lowlands of Gīlān proper are bounded by the Alburz range; the latter forms here a crescent, the eastern horn of which comes close to the Caspian coast (between Lāhīd̲j̲ān and Čālūs). In the centre of the crescent there is a gap through which the Safīd-rūd, formed on the central Iranian plateau, breaks through ¶ towards the Caspian Sea. Before entering the gorge at Mand̲j̲īl the river, flowing here from west to east, receives a considerable tributary, the S̲h̲āh-rūd, which, rising in t…

, the form found in Islamic sources for the capital of Georgia, Tiflis or modern Tbilisi. The city is situated on hilly ground in the Kura river valley [see kur ] (lat. 41° 43′ N., long. 44° 49′ E.), and has a strategic position controlling the routes between eastern and western Transcaucasia which has ensured it a lively history. The city is an ancient one, being founded in A.D. 455 or 458 when the capital of Georgia was transferred thither from nearby Mtsk̲h̲eta. For the subsequent history of the city, from Byzantine and Sāsānid times through the long…

, Gurd̲j̲ , Gurd̲j̲istān , the names in Islamic sources for the province of Georgia in western Caucasia. Georgia comprises four distinct regions: Mingrelia and Imereti in the north-west; Samtask̲h̲e in the south-west (adjoining the Black Sea coastal region of Lazistān [see laz ], inhabited by a people closely related to the Georgians); Kartli in the north, with the capital Tiflis [ q.v.], Georgian Tbilisi; and Kak̲h̲eti in the east. Topographically, much of Georgia comprises mountains, hills and plateaux, with lowland only on the Black Sea coastal plain an…

, a Persian man of letters, who died on 19 S̲h̲awwāl 1313/3 April 1896. His honorific titles were Sanīʿ al-Dawla and later Iʿtimād al-Salṭana . Through his mother he was related to the Ḳād̲j̲ārs [ q.v.] and through his father he claimed descent from the Mongol rulers. His father, Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī ʿAlī K̲h̲ān of Marāg̲h̲a, was a faithful servant of Nāṣir al-Dīn S̲h̲āh (in 1268/1852 he discovered the conspiracy of Sulaymān K̲h̲ān) and the son from his youth upwards was in the service of the court. Muḥammad Ḥasan K̲h̲ān was one of the first students at the Dār al-F…

, a district in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān whose precise location is unknown. According to al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 328, Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ [ q.v.], sent to conquer Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, attacked the people of Mūḳān and Gīlān. A number of inhabitants of Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān and Armenians, who had gathered in the nāḥiya of Urm and at *Balwānkarad̲j̲, were defeated by one of Saʿīd’s commanders. The leader of the rebels was hanged on the walls of the fortress of Bād̲j̲arwān (see on this place, Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb , 181, tr. 173; Bād̲j̲arwān was 20 farsak̲h̲ s north of Ardabīl). …

, a former k̲h̲ānate in the Persian province of Ad̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, and now the name of a town and of modern administrative units around it (see below). Mākū occupies the north-western extremity of Persia and forms a salient between Turkey (the old sand̲j̲aḳ of Bāyazīd, modern vilayet of Ağri) and Soviet Transcaucasia. In the west the frontier with Turkey follows the heights which continue the line of the Zagros in the direction of Ararat. The frontier then crosses a plain stretching to the south of this mountain (valle…

(i) province of Persia; (ii) Soviet Socialist Republic. (i) The great province of Persia, called in Middle Persian Āturpātākān, older new-Persian Ād̲h̲arbād̲h̲agān, Ād̲h̲arbāyagān, at present Āzarbāyd̲j̲ān, Greek ’Ατροπατήνη, Byzantine Greek ’Αδραβιγάνων, Armenian Atrapatakan, Syriac Ad̲h̲orbāyg̲h̲ān. The province was called after the general Atropates (“protected by fire”), who at the time of Alexander’s invasion proclaimed his independence (328 B.C.) and thus preserved his kingdom (Media Minor, Strabo…

, a ruined site in Transcaspia (the modern Türkmenistan SSR) north-west of the confluence of the Atrak and its right bank tributary the Sumbar, or more exactly, on the road which runs from Čat at right angles to the road connecting Čikis̲h̲ler with the railway station of Aydi̊n. The ruins are surrounded by a wall of brick and a ditch and have an area of 320 acres. The old town, situated in the steppes which are now peopled by Turkomans, received its water from a canal led from the Atrak about 40 miles above Čat. Near the latter place, the can…

, literally, “land of the S̲h̲ūl” [see s̲h̲ūl. 1. above], a district, formerly a bulūk , in the southern Persian province of Fārs. Three epochs must be distinguished in the history of the district: one before the arrival of the S̲h̲ūl, the period of their rule (from the 7th/13th centuries), and the period of its occupation by the Mamassanī Lurs about the beginning of the 12th/18th century. During the Sāsānid period, the district was included in the kūra of S̲h̲āpūr-k̲h̲ūra. The founding of its capital Nawbandagan (Nawband̲j̲ān) is attributed to S̲h̲…

¶ i.—General Introduction The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East, live at the junction of more or less laicised Turkey, S̲h̲īʿi Iran, Arab and Sunnī ʿIrāḳ and North Syria, and Soviet Transcaucasia. The economic and strategic importance of this land, Kurdistān, is undeniable. Since the end of the First World War, the Kurdish people, like all the rest of their neighbours, have undergone considerable transformations as much in the political order as in the economic, social and cultural domain. …

, Süldüz , a Mongol tribe which played a considerable role in mediaeval Islamic history of the Mongol and II K̲h̲ānid periods. According to Berezin, the correct Mongol form would be Süldes (pl. of sülde “good fortune”; Vladimirtsov interpreted sülde as “le génie-protecteur habitant le drapeau”). L. Ligeti, Die Herkunft des Volksnamens Kirgis , in Körösi Csoma Archivum , i (1925), saw in the ending of Suld-uz, as in Ḳi̊rḳ-i̊z, the remains of an ancient Turkish plural suffix (cf. biz “we”, siz “you”, etc.) and as a hypothetical singular quoted the name of a Ḳi̊rg̲h̲i̊z clan Su…

(called in Nog̲h̲ay Turkish, Ḳuman , in Čerkes, Phs̲h̲iz ), one of the four great rivers of the Caucasus (Rion, Kura, Terek and Ḳuban). It is about 450 miles long. It rises near Mount Elburz at a height of 13,930 feet. Its three constituents (K̲h̲urzuḳ, Ulu-Ḳam, Uč-Ḳulan) join together before reaching the defile through which the Ḳuban enters the plains (at a height of 1,075 feet). The Ḳuban at first runs through the wooded outer spurs of the mountains and then, taking a westerly di…

, a Persian corruption of sog̲h̲uḳ bulaḳ “cold spring”, Kurdish Sā-blāg̲h̲, the name of a district in southwestern Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, to the south of Lake Urmiya, and also the former name of its chef-lieu, the modern Mahābād [ q.v.]. The district comprises essentially Mukrī Kurdistān, inhabited by the sedentary Mukrī and Debok̲h̲rī tribes of Kurds, speaking the Kurmānd̲j̲ī form of the Kurdish language (classically described by O. Mann in his Die Mundart der Mukri-Kurden . Kurdisch-persische Forschungen , 4th ser. vol. iii/1-2, Berlin 1906-9. Cf. Min…

, name of a Turkish tribe in Persia. In particular, the name refers to the ruling faroily of the Ḳarā-Ḳoyūnlū federation of Türkmen tribes (also called Bārānī). It is most probable that the name (“those of Bahār”) is connected with the village of Bahār (Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, x, 290: W. hān , read Vahār ) situated at 13 kms. north of Hamadān. According to Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, Nuzha , 107 (Eng. transl. 106) the castle of Bahār served as residence to Sulaymān-s̲h̲āh b. Parčam Īwāʾī, who later became one of the three chief ministers of the caliph al…

, a district of the Caspian coastlands region of Persia comprising the western half of Māzandarān [ q.v.]. Iranian tradition. According to Darmesteter, Avesta , ii, 416, Rūyān corresponds to the mountain called Raodita (“reddish”) in Yas̲h̲t , 19, 2, and Rōyis̲h̲nōmand in Bundahis̲h̲n , xii, 2, 27 (tr. West, 34). Al-Bīrūnī, Chronologie , ed. Sachau, 220, makes Rūyān the scene of the exploits of the archer Āris̲h̲ (cf. Ẓahīr al-Dīn Marʿas̲h̲ī, Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ṭabaristān u Rūyān u Māzandarān , ed. Dorn, 18 [ Yas̲h̲t 8, 6, in this connection mentions the hill Aryō-xs̲h̲nθa]). In the …

, a town in the mediaeval Islamic province of northern D̲j̲ibāl some 50 km/32 miles to the southeast of Zand̲j̲ān [ q.v.] (lat. 36° 24′ N., long. 48° 50′ E.). 1. History. Sulṭāniyya was founded towards the end of the 7th/13th century by the Mongol Il K̲h̲ānids and served for a while in the following century as their capital. The older Persian name of the surrounding district was apparently S̲h̲āhrūyāz or S̲h̲ārūyāz/S̲h̲arūbāz (which was to be the site, adjacent to Sulṭāniyya, of the tomb which the Il K̲h̲ānid Abū Saʿīd [ q.v.] built for himself, according to Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū). It was orig…

( banū ʿannāz ), a dynasty (c. 381-511/991-1117) in the frontier region between ʿIrāḳ and Iran, which was one of the manifestations of the period "between the Arabs and the Turks" when, in the wake of the westward expansion of the Būyids, numerous principalities of Iranian origin sprang up in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān and Kurdistān. As the rise of the Banū ʿAnnāz was based on the S̲h̲ād̲h̲and̲j̲ān Kurds, the dynasty should be considered as Kurdish, although the Arabic names and titles of the majority of the rulers indicate the Arab links of the ruling fami…