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, a river in Central Asia, 1090 km. long, but not navigable because of its strong current. It is now known as S̲h̲u (Barthold, Vorl . 80) by the Kirgiz who live there (and it probably had this name when the Turks lived there in the Middle Ages); Chinese: Su-yeh or Sui-s̲h̲e . modern Chinese: Čʿuci (for the problem of the indication of Ču = Chinese ‘pearl’ with the ‘Pearl River’ [Yinčü Ögüz] in the Ork̲h̲on Inscriptions, cf. the article Si̊r Daryā ). The river Ču has its source in Terskei Alaltau, and then flows to the north-east until 6 km. from the western end of the Issik Kul [ q.v.], known as Ḳočḳar …

, in eastern Turkish (by iolk-etymology) Bai kül , ‘the rich lake’; in Mongolian Datai nor, ‘the ocean lake’; the deepest lake (1741 m.), and the largest mountain lake in the world, between 51° 29′ and 55° 46′ north, and 103° 44′ and 110° 40′ east, surrounded by high mountain ranges, 635 km. long, and varying from 15 to 79 km wide, with an area of 31,500 sq. km. Flowing into it are the Selenga, the Barguzin and the upper An…

(Arabic ‘new’, ‘modern’; Turkish pronunciation d̲j̲edīd ), followers of the uṣūl-i d̲j̲edīd ( e), the ‘new methods’, among the Muslims of Russia. The movement arose in about 1880 among the Kazan [ q.v.] Tatars, who provided it with its first leaders; from there it spread to other Turkish peoples in Russia. The D̲j̲edīds were against ‘religious and cultural retrogression’; they pressed, above all, for modern teaching methods in the schools, for the cultural unification of all Turkish peoples living under Russian domination, but…

(Arab. Ḳunşul ; Pers. Ḳunṣūl ; Turk. Konsolos ), consuls as representatives of the interests of foreign states in Islamic countries (and similarly in Byzantium). The institution of the consul was formed in the 12th and 13th centuries in the Italian merchant republics. The Genoese put their possessions in the Crimea (see Ki̊ri̊m ); since 1266), nominally subject to the Ḵh̲ān of the Golden Horde, in the charge of a consul (B. Spuler: Die Goldene Horde , Leipzig 1943, 392-8, with further bibl.; E. S. Zevakin and N. A. Penčko: Očerki po istorii genuėzskik̲h̲ koloniy ..., ( ‘Sketches on the History…

(Persian: “a thousand horses”), a town in K̲h̲wārizm, near the left bank of the Oxus [see āmū daryā ] at the outlet of a navigable canal, a day’s journey from K̲h̲īwa and 10 farsak̲h̲ from Gurgand̲j̲ (Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, Nuzha , 179 ff.). The town had wooden gates and was surrounded by a moat (Muḳaddasī, 289), which almost entirely enclosed it, so that in 616/1219 there was only one entrance. Hazārasp was a strong fortress, and at the same time an important trading centre with large bazaars, lying on the trade route from Āmul on the Oxus to K̲h̲wārizm (Yāḳūt, iv, 471 = Beirut 1957, v, 404).…

, the modern s̲h̲ahr-i sabz (“green town”) on account of the fertility of its surroundings), a town in Özbekistān on what was once the great trade route between Samarḳand and Balk̲h̲. According to Chinese authorities, Kas̲h̲ (Chinese transcription Kʾia-s̲h̲a or Kié-s̲h̲uang-na, also Kʾius̲h̲a, as a town Ki-s̲h̲e) was founded at the beginning of the seventh century A.D.; cf. J. Marquart, Chronologie der alttürkischen Inschriften , Leipzig 1898, 57; Ērānšahr etc., Berlin 1901, 304; E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Toukiue ( Turcs ) occidentaux , St. Petersbu…

, Mongol and Eastern Turkish word meaning "tribe" and "group of tribes" (=Turkish il); in Modern Mongolian, "province", in the USSR, " rayon ". In Afg̲h̲ānistān the four nomadic tribes of partly nomad origin: Ḏj̲ams̲h̲īdī, Hazāra, Fīrūzkūhī and Taymanī, are called the "Four Aymaḳs" (Čār, or Čahār. Aymaḳ) [see čahār aymak ]. (B. Spuler) ¶

is the name given to the dynasty of Turkish origin which was founded by Sebüktigin, a General and Governor of the Sāmānids [ q.v.]. With G̲h̲azna [ q.v.] for long its capital, the dynasty lasted for more than 200 years, from 367/977-8 to 583/1187, in eastern Īrān and what is now Afg̲h̲ānistān, and finally only in parts of the Pand̲j̲āb (with Lahāwur/Lahore as centre). For a long time its rulers held the official title of Amīr, ¶ although historians call them Sulṭān from the start; on coins, Ibrāhīm (no. XII below) was the first to bear this title. From the time when Alptigin established hims…

, the title borne by the (non-Muslim) rulers of Ḳarak̲h̲itāy [ q.v.] (Chinese Hsi Liao = ¶ Western Liao) who governed central Asia between 522-5/1128-31 and 608/1212 (or, with Güčlük, till 615/1218). The first ruler was Yeh-lü Ta-s̲h̲ih (d. 537/1143), a prince from the north Chinese dynasty of Liao, of the Kʿi-tan (Ḵh̲itāy) people. He overthrew the regime of the Ḳarak̲h̲ānids [ q.v.] or Ilig-k̲h̲āns and in 535/1141 defeated the Sald̲j̲ūḳid sultan Sand̲j̲ar [ q.v.] decisively in the Ḳaṭwān plain, north of Samarḳand: the victory of a non-Muslim ruler from the East over …

(T.), “white water”, (1) technical term for the original bed of a river (also aḳ daryā ), from which a canal ( ḳara ṣu or ḳara daryā ) is derived; (2) name of several rivers in Turkish-speaking countries; they are sometimes better known under other names. The following are some of the rivers that bear in Turkish the name of Aḳ Ṣu: (i) one of the source rivers of the Amū Daryā [ q.v.], also called Murg̲h̲āb [ q.v.] or the “River of Kūlāb”; (ii) the “southern” Bug (in Ukrainian: Boh) in the Ukraine (so regularly in the Ottoman historians), which forms at its issue into the …

, a district on both sides of the middle course of the Wak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Surk̲h̲āb (Turk. Ḳi̊zi̊l Ṣū), one of the rivers which form the Āmū Daryā, called Rās̲h̲t by the Arab geographers (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih 34, 211 f.; Ibn Rusta, 92 f., 290; Yaʿḳūbī, Buldān , 260). The principal place (or “the fortress”, al-Ḳalʿa , al-Iṣṭak̲h̲rī, 340) of Rās̲h̲t corresponded as regards its situation perfectly with the modern Garm or Harm, the only town in Ḳaratigin. Rās̲h̲t then formed one of the frontier lands of Islām and was ¶ defended on the east against the inroads of the Turks by a wall built by Faḍl b. Barmak [ q…

, a historic region around the delta of the river Safīd-rūd [ q.v.], was the homeland of the Gēl people (Gelae, Γῆλαι; = Καδούϭιοι) in antiquity. The present Persian inhabitants, who speak a special dialect (cf. G. Melgunoff, Essai sur les dialectes ... du Ghîlân ..., in ZDMG, xvii (1868), 195-224, and the article iran: Languages) bear the name Gīlak (at an earlier period also Gīl). The derivation of the name from gil “clay”, in allusion to the marshes of the region, is a piece of folk etymology. In the middle ages Gīlān first extended as far as the Čālūs in the south east; later i…

( Čäpär ), the eldest son of Ḳaidū [ q.v.] and great grandson of the Mongol Great Ḵh̲an Ögedey (Uk/gatāy: regn . 1229-41), after his father’s death in 700/1301 and his own succession to the throne on the Imil in the spring of 702/1303 (Ḏj̲amāl Ḳars̲h̲ī in W. Barthold, Turkestan . Russian ed. i, 1900, 138), he fought in the beginning continually against the claims of Ḳubilay’s successors upon the Great Ḵh̲anate, considering it his own prerogative as one of Ögedey’s descendants, who were the central "protectors of the genuin…

( Dābōē ), the founder of the Dābūyid dynasty in Gīlān [ q.v.]. The tribe claimed to be of Sāsānid extraction through Dābūya’s father, Gīl Gāwbāra. Their residence was the town of Fūman [ q.v.]. The dynasty clung to Zoroastrianism for a long time, and repeatedly defended the land against the Arabs, until the last ruler, K̲h̲ūrs̲h̲īd̲h̲ II (758/60, 141 or 142 A.H.) had to flee before the superior force of the ʿAbbāsids, and put an end to his own life in Daylam (Ṭabarī, iii, 139 f.). One of his daughters, whose name is unknown, became the wife of the Caliph al-Manṣūr. The names of the members of t…

, city and district. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga, some sixty miles from the point where it runs into the Caspian Sea, 46° 21′ N, 48° 2′ E, 20.7 m. below normal sea level, 7.6 m. above the level of the Caspian Sea. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, ii, 410-2, who passed through here in 1333, mentions for the first time a settlement supposed to have been founded by a Mecca pilgrim, whose religious reputation brought the district exemption from taxes; this was supposed to explain its name, viz. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Tark̲h̲ān ( tark̲h̲ān means among the Mongols in later times a man e…

town in Farghāna, 40 43° north, 72 25° east, on the left of the upper Jaxartes (Si̊r Daryā). In the 4th/10th century the town—then known as Anduk(g)ān—was under the rule of the Ḳarluḳs and later under their Ḳarak̲h̲ānid rulers; in the 11th century it was under the Sald̲j̲ūḳs (Yāḳūt, Cairo ed., i, 347). In the 12th century the town is mentioned as the centre of Farg̲h̲āna (cf. Zap. Imp. Russk. geogr . ob-va xxix, 72). Apparently the town suffered greatly from the Mongol raids and had to be rebuilt towards the end of the 13th century under the Čag̲h̲atay Ḵh̲āns Kaydū a…

, (T., "holy father") is the old name of the city called since 1938 Ḏj̲ambul after the Ḳazak̲h̲ poet Džambul Džabaev (1846-1945), which lies on the left bank of the Ṭalās in the Ḳazak̲h̲ SSR. Until 1917 it was the capital of the district of the Si̊r Daryā in Russian Turkistān and obtained its name from the grave of the holy man Ḳara Ḵh̲ān (which is mentioned as early as the 17th century; see Maḥmūd b. Walī, Baḥr al-Asrār , MS India Office 545, fol. 1191). His mausoleum dates from the 19th century and bears no inscription. On the other hand the grave of the "little holy one" ( Kičik Awliyā …

, descendants of Batu [ q.v.], a grandson of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān [ q.v.], the ruling house of the Golden Horde from 1236/40 until 1502. After a short-lived advance by Mongol troops in 1223-24 into what is today the Ukraine (Russian defeat on the Kalka in that year), Batu, the second son of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān’s eldest son Ḏj̲oči (who died early in 1227), succeeded in subjugating large parts of Russia in the years 1236-1241. Only the north west (with Novgorod as its centre), was spared, and— apart from occasional payments of tribute—…

, called by the Arabs Ḏj̲urd̲j̲āniyya, and also in the period about 600/1200 described as Ḵh̲wārizm (like the country round), the economic centre of the Ḵh̲wārizm [ q.v.] area and for a long period also the political capital of the territory, lay to the west of the lowest reaches of the Oxus (Āmū ¶ Daryā). The town, whose age is unknown, was captured by the Arabs in 93/712. They attempted to deprive Gurgand̲j̲ of its importance by founding a city, Fīl (Fīr), on the further bank of the Oxus; but the new settlement was gradually inundated by the river (for details see kāt̲h̲ )…

Īlk̲h̲ān [ q.v.] from 1291 until 1295, the younger son of Abaḳa, was raised to power by the leaders of his country after the death of his brother Arg̲h̲ūn [ q.v.]. He ascended the throne on 23 Rad̲j̲ab 690/22 July 1291, when he also adopted the Buddhist (Tibetan) names Rin-čhen rDo-rje “precious jewel”; he was, however, in no way hostile to the Muslims, and he was the only Īlk̲h̲ān who did not carry out any executions. Earlier, as an official in Asia Minor, he had been renowned for his unbounded liberality; now he squandered…

, Banū Fīrūzān (Pērōzān), a Persian tribe which in the 4th/10th century had considerable influence in the district of S̲h̲ukūr (Ṭabaristān). The only member of the tribe of real significance was Makān b. Kālī (Kākī ?) who started as an officer in the service of the ʿAlids of Ṭabaristān, and later held various official positions; in 329/940 he died in battle (for details see mākān ). After his death one of his relatives (his cousin, according to Ibn Miskawayh, ii, 3-7; his uncle, according to Zambaur), al-Ḥasan b. Fīrūzan, succeeded in gaining control of the n…

, two mountain ranges east of the Caspian Sea, which enclose the dried-out river-bed of the Özboi (cf. Āmū Daryā). To the north of this river lies the Great Balk̲h̲ān, a high plateau of limestone, difficult of access, with steep slopes; the highest elevation is at the Düines̲h̲ Ḳalʿe, about 1880 metres. The Little Balk̲h̲ān, south of the Özboi and cut with numerous ravines, attains (in the west) a height of no more than 800 metres. These mountains, where according to Muḳaddasī, 285, l. 14 ff., w…

name of the dynasty which ruled Buk̲h̲ārā [ q.v.] from 1007/1599 to 1199/1785. It was descended from D̲j̲ān(ī) b. Yār Muḥammad, a prince of the house of the K̲h̲āns of Astrak̲h̲ań (Tatar Az̲h̲darhān and As̲h̲tark̲h̲ān ) who had fled from his homeland before the advancing Russians to Buk̲h̲ārā around 963/1556. It was from This homeland of his that the dynasty was also called As̲h̲tark̲h̲ānids (for genealogy cf. čingizids ). D̲j̲ān married Zahrā K̲h̲ani̊m, a sister of the S̲h̲aybānid ruler ʿAbd Allāh II b. Iskandar [ q.v.]. On the latter’s death in 1006/1598 the empire that he had…

, properly, Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbbās (d. 423/1032), the last wazīr of Maḥmūd [ q.v.] of G̲h̲azna. Becoming governor of K̲h̲urāsān at an early age, Ḥasanak went on the pilgrimage in 414/1023 and allowed himself to be persuaded (Bayhaḳī, 209) to return via Cairo and there to accept a robe of honour ( k̲h̲ilʿa ) from the Fāṭimid Caliph al-Ẓāhir. This resulted in his being suspected by the ʿAbbāsid Caliph al-Ḳādir of being an adherent of the Fāṭimid Caliphate. After his return to G̲h̲azna, therefore, the ʿAbbāsid Caliph demanded of Maḥmūd that he should have him executed «as a Ḳarmaṭī» [ q…

, ruler of Ḵh̲īwa and Čag̲h̲atāy historian, born probably on 16 Rabīʿ i, 1012/24 Aug., 1603, son of ʿArab Muḥammad Ḵh̲ān, of the Özbeg dynasty of the S̲h̲aybānids [ q.v.], and of a princess of the same family. He spent his youth in Urganč (at that time largely depopulated owing to the change of course of the Oxus), at the court of his father, who was k̲h̲ān of this place.. In 1029/1619 he was appointed to be his father’s lieutenant in Kāt̲h̲, but when his father was killed soon afterwards in a rebellion of two of his other …

, an Özbek chief of the family of the Keneges, who was till 1870 prince of S̲h̲ahrisabz. This town having been conquered by the Russians, he fled with a small body of those faithful to him. Finally he was seized in Ferg̲h̲ānā and obliged to reside at Tas̲h̲kent. In 1875 he entered Russian military service and took part in the campaign against Ḵh̲oḳand. He died about 1898 at Tas̲h̲kent. (W. Barthold [B. Spuler])

, a peninsula jutting out into the Black Sea south of the Ukraine (Russian Kri̊m; English Crimea; French Crimée; German Krim; with an area of 25,500 km2), connected with the mainland by the isthmus ca. 8 km. wide of Perekop (in Turkish Or Ḳapi̊), and ending to the east in the peninsula of Kerč [ q.v.]. The northern and central parts are flat; to the south lies a mountainous area consisting of three ranges, the most southern of which, Mt. Yayla (1,545 m high), falls down steeply to the coastal strip. The climate is relatively mild and on the south-ea…

( ḳaraḳoram ), a chain of mountains in the centre of Asia lying north of and almost parallel to the Himalayas. The range extends westwards as far as 73° long.; it has not yet been definitely ascertained how far it runs eastwards. At one time the eastern limit was thought to be the pass of the Ḳaraḳorum, the plateau of Depsong and the upper part of the S̲h̲ayok, but, according to the views of several famous geographers, the range runs much farther into Tibet, and the Tang-la (to the north of upper Saluën) should, they think, be regarded ¶ as a part of the Ḳaraḳorum. This idea was first put fo…

, Bālyoz (originally Baylōs), the Turkish name for the Venetian ambassador to the Sublime Porte—in Italian, bailo (Venetian ambassadors at Byzantium had borne this title since 1082; other baili were at Tyre and Lajazzo/Payas near Alexandretta). The Venetians, immediately after the conquest of Constantinople, sent off as bailo Bartolommeo Marcello, who on 18 April 1454 made with the Porte a commercial treaty which renewed the agreement already existing with the Ottomans since 1408. Under this new treaty Venice had the ri…

, a town in Chinese Turkestān (Sin Kiang); the same name is still used in Chinese official documents. The name Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar first appears in Chinese transcription (Kʾiu-cha) in the Tʾang-s̲h̲u ; cf. E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue ( Turcs ) occidentaux , St. Petersburg 1903, 121 f. On the pre-Islamic Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar and the ruins of Buddhist buildings in the vicinity, see A. Stein, Ancient Khotan , Oxford 1907, i, 52 f.; idem, Serindia , Oxford 1921, 80 f. Arab armies did not reach Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar; the story of Ḳutayba’s campaign in 96/715 is, as shown by H. A. R. Gibb in BSOS, ii (1923), 46…

, a large, slightly salty lake in west Turkistān, 46° 45′ to 43° 43′ N and 76° to 79° 27′ E. with a surface area of (1942) 66,458 sq.km.; of this 2345 sq.km. are islands. (The largest islands are the Toḳmaḳ Aṭa in front of the mouth of the Āmu Daryā, Ostrov Vozroždeniya, "Island of the Resurrection", formerly Nicholas Island, discovered in 1848, 216 sq.km.; Barsa Kelmez, "arrival without ¶ return”, 133sq.km.; and finally Kug Aral, in the north, eastward in front of the Ḳara Tüp peninsula, 273 sq.km.) The maximum length from NE to SW is 428 k…

, Bes̲h̲bali̊ḳ, the Soghdian (?) Pand̲j̲ikat̲h̲ (both meaning ‘Town of Five’), a town in eastern Turkestan frequently mentioned between the 2nd/8th and 7th/13th centuries (concerning the name cf. Minorsky in Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , 271 f. and 2715). It was rediscovered in 1908 by Russian explorers, with the aid of information found in Chinese sources. Its position is 47 km. to the west of Kūs̲h̲ang (Chinese Ku-čʿöng) which was founded in the 18th century, and 10 km. north of Tsi-mu-sa, near the village of Hu-pao-tse. Its ruins (known as …

( Čag̲h̲ān-Rōd̲h̲ ), the seventh and last tributary on the right of the river Āmū-Daryā [ q.v.]. It comes from the Buttam mountains, to the north of Čag̲h̲āniyān [ q.v.], flows past that town and several smaller places, and finally into the Āmū-Daryā above Tirmid̲h̲. The river is called by this name only in the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , (71, no. 11, p. 363), and in S̲h̲araf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī, Ẓ afar-nāma (ed. Iláhdád), 1885, i, 196 (= translation by F. Pétis de la Croix, i, 183). Muḳaddasī, 22, calls it "river of Čag̲h̲āniyān", and distinguishes it fr…

is the name of a Turkish tribe in the Altai mountains, partly professing, more or less nominally, Orthodox Christianity, partly Shamanistic; though Islam is not to be found amongst them, they had some contact, though possibly not an immediate one, with Islamic civilization (as attested by loan words such as kuday , "God"; shaytan , "the devil"). (Cf. for them G. Teich and H. Rübel, Völker … der UdSSR , Leipzig 1943, 28-43, 137 f., 142; W. Radloff, Proben aus der Volksliteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens , i; idem, Aus Sibirien , i, 250 ff.; Bol’shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya 2, 141…

, a word figuring from Mongol times (13th century) in Iranian and Turkish literature, particularly in historical literature. Like the Uighuric original, it begins by denoting the Buddhist priest or monk (= Thibetan: Lama). During the time when the Īlk̲h̲āns ( q.v.) were favourably disposed to, or gallawers of, Buddhism, the number and influence of the bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī in Iran was considerable. In Iran, central Asia, India and the Crimea—after the suppression of Buddhism in Iran (in 1295)— bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī denotes only a scribe who wrote Turkish and Mongol records (which were kept …

, capital of a Muslim kingdom in the upper Ili [ q.v.] valley, founded in the 7th/13th century by Ūzār (Ḏj̲uwaynī, i, 57) or Būzār (Ḏj̲amāl Ḳars̲h̲ī, in W. Barthold, Turkestan , Russ. ed., i, 135 f.), who is said to have previously been a brigand and horse-thief. According to Ḏj̲amāl, he assumed the title of Tog̲h̲ri̊l Ḵh̲ān as ruler. Almali̊g̲h̲ is first mentioned as the capital of this kingdom, and later as a great and wealthy commercial city. We owe our information about its site mainly to the Chinese (Bretschneider, Med . Researches , i, 69 f., ii, 33 ff. and in…

Ḥusaynī rāzī , Persian historian, b. ca. 993/1585, date of death unknown; author of a large history of the world, which in the manuscripts is sometimes called “Mad̲j̲maʿ” and sometimes “Zubdat al-tawārīk̲h̲” , and is generally known as “Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ḥaydarī” . The work is arranged according to geographical divisions in five bāb s: 1. the Arab world; 2. Persia; 3. Central Asia and the Far East; 4. the West; 5. India, each of which is arranged chronologically. They deal with political history and frequently reach into the time …

, also known as fūs̲h̲and̲j̲ , in Middle Persian probably Pūs̲h̲ang, ancient Iranian town to the south of the river Harīrūd, and 10 parasangs (= one day’s journey) W-S-W. of Harāt (Yāḳūt, i, 758) which lies north of the river. The town already existed in pre-Islamic times, and, according to legend, was founded either (considering its name) by the hero Pas̲h̲ang (the son, though in the epos the father, of Afrāsiyāb), or else by the Sāsānid ruler S̲h̲āpūr I (242-271) (J. Marquart, Erāns̲h̲ahr , 49). In the year 588, the town is mentioned as the seat of a Nestorian bishop ( ibid., 64; it is, howev…

, mighty, ca. 1000 miles long mountain system in eastern Central Asia, stretching from the Saisan Sea in the southwest to the upper Selenga and the upper Ork̲h̲on, with the sources of the Obʾ, the Irti̊s̲h̲ and the Yenissei. Here, and in the adjacent country to the north-east as far as the present-day Mongolia, was the oldest home of the Turks and the Mongols and their ancestors. The Turks had here for a long time after their "refuge" in the Ötükän [ q.v.] mountains. The oldest Turkish designation for the southern Altai, as it appears in the inscriptions of the Ork̲h̲on, is A…

, more correctly B/Pinākat̲h̲ (thus in Muḳaddasī, 277, l. 1; in Sogdian: Bi/unēkat̲h̲, “chief town”, “capital”), but in D̲j̲uwaynī, i, 47 Fanāka(n)t—a small town at the confluence of the Ilak (today the Āhangarān/Angren), flowing from the right, with the Jaxartes (Iranian: Ḵh̲as̲h̲ant— cf. Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , 118, 210 ff., and also ibid., 72, where it is named Ūzgand). It lies almost south-east of Tas̲h̲kent (Čāč/S̲h̲ās̲h̲) and was once a flourishing place ( Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, 118), possessed however no walls and had its mosque in the bazaar (Muḳaddasī, 277; cf. also al-Ḵh̲wārizmī, in C. A…

, the river Oxus. Names. The river was known in antiquity as ῎Οξος, (also ῏Ωξος, Latin Oxus); length 2494-2340 kms. The present Iranian designation is traceable to the town of Āmul [ q.v.], later Āmū, where the route from Ḵh̲urāsān to Transoxania crossed the river as long ago as the early Islamic period. The Greek name is, according to W. Geiger and J. Markwart ( Wehrot , 3, 89) derived from the Iranian root wak̲h̲s̲h̲ , "to increase"; a derivation from the homonymous root meaning "to sprinkle" is also possible. (Cf. the name of the Wak̲h̲s̲h̲āb, …

, also Kaylif , a town on the Amu-Daryā (al-Masʿūdī, viii, 64 calls the latter “Kālif River”), west-north-west of Tirmid̲h̲. The main part of the town with the fortress Rībāṭ D̲h̲ī-l-Ḳarnayn lay to the south of the river; there was a castle nearby. On the outskirts on the northern bank lay the fortress called Ribāṭ Dhī ’ l-Kifl [see d̲h̲u ’l-ḳifl ]. In 1220 the Khwārizms̲h̲āh Muḥammad II marched on the town to prevent the Mongols from crossing the Amū-Daryā. According to Mustawfī, Nuzhat al-Ḳulūb , 156 (translation 153), Kālif was famous in the 8th/14th cen…

, main town of a district in Transoxania, is situated on the Ḵh̲ānaka, a tributary of the Kāfirnihān, 675 metres above sea level, in a fertile but humid and unhealthy region, bounded by the Zarafs̲h̲ān and the Ḳi̊zi̊l Su (cf. Cleinow and R. Olzscha, Turkestan , Heidelberg 1942, 187; illustration of the town at the beginning of the 19th century in Fr. v. Schwarz, Turkestan, Freiburg/Br. 1900, 233). At the time of the Arab conquest of Transoxania early in the 2nd/8th century, the place was called S̲h̲ūmān and constituted a small independent principality, which later came under the rule of ¶ …

(Turkish “blue hill”), transcribed in Russian “Geok Tepe”, a fort in the oasis of the Ak̲h̲al-Teke [ q.v.] Turkmen, on the Sasi̊k su (Sasi̊k Āb), situated about 45 km. west of ʿAs̲h̲ḳābād, today in the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistān. It consists ¶ of a series of isolated places, one of which, Dengil Tepe (4½ km. in circumference), was defended from I until 24 Jan. 1881 (new style) by about 12,000 Ak̲h̲al-Teke Turkmen [see teke ] against the Russians under General Mik̲h̲aїl Dmitrievič Skobelev (about 8,000 Caucasians and Turkestanis). Both sides suffered heavy losses,…

, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. MuḤammad , Persian statesman known as “Ṣāḥib Dīwān” , brother of the historian ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn D̲j̲uwaynī (difference in their respective ages unknown), was made Chief Minister in 661/1262-3 by the Ilk̲h̲ān Hülegü [ q.v.], according to Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Quatremère, i, 302 ff., 402. Nothing is known about his youth, and his brother does not mention him in his historical work. He became Ṣāḥib ( -i) Dīwān (approximately equivalent to Finance Minister), and also held This post under Abaḳa (664-81/1265-82); with the hel…

(Persian: “cushion”), Turkish: yastuḳ , a 13th century Mongolian monetary unit, which was in use particularly in the eastern part of the Empire. It is, however, also mentioned frequently by the Īlk̲h̲āns [ q.v.] in Īrān. In China it appears as late as the 14th century. The bālis̲h̲ was coined in gold and in silver, and (according to Ḏj̲uwaynī. GMS i, 16, and Waṣṣāf, lith. Bombay, 22), corresponded to 500 mit̲h̲ḳāl (according to W. Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte , Leiden 1955, 1-8, on the basis of numismatic observations: 4. 3 g. each; Ḏj̲uwaynī. trans. J. A. Boyle, i, 22, writes loc. cit. o…

, one of the local dynasties characteristic of Persian mediaeval times, which after the downfall of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ empire succeeded in maintaining their position in the hot, humid and mountainous regions of Iran throughout the Mongol period and to some extent into Tīmūrid times, and ¶ which thus contributed to the preservation of a native Persian individuality even under foreign dynasties. From their capital Īd̲h̲ad̲j̲ [ q.v.], the Hazāraspids ruled over eastern and southern Luristān [ q.v.] from about 550/1155-6 to 827/1424, though the extent of their domains varied gre…

, place on the Trans-Caspian Railway, 461/9 m. (57 km.) to the east of Marw, with a Persian population, now in the Marw (Mary) district of the Türkmen SSR, situated close by the oasis of Old Marv which was created by the Murg̲h̲āb [ q.v.] and existed until the 18th century. Its ruins cover an area of some 50 sq. km. In the 19th century the region became part of the emperor’s personal domain, which existed until 1917. Today there is an agricultural research station and an agricultural technical school in Bayram ʿAlī. There are vineyards and orchards, and both silk worms and karakul sheep are bred. (B.…

, Mongol dynasty ruling in ¶ Persia in the 7th/13th and 8th/14th centuries. The first Mongol advance towards the Middle East (1218-21) had touched only the north of the Iranian area and only K̲h̲urāsān [ q.v.] had, to a certain extent, been subjected to Mongol control. Therefore, when the territories were being divided up under the Great Khan Möngke (1251-9), who himself was fighting in China with his brother Ḳubilay, the task of extending control over Persia, Mesopotamia and, if possible, Syria and Egypt as well, was entrusted to their brother Hülegü [ q.v.]. According to Barthold, abo…

, word for “castle”, already attested in ancient Turkish and Uygur (Turfan, the Kutadg̲h̲u Bilig ) and perhaps connected with “Kerd̲j̲iye” in Tokharian B. It was later adopted with This meaning by the Mongols. The town of Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab, or Nasaf [ q.v.], was called Ḳars̲h̲i after a castle built two parasangs from the town by the Čag̲h̲atay ruler Kebek K̲h̲ān (1318-26). The stream which flows through the steppes was called Ḳars̲h̲i-daryā. The town is mentioned in Bābur’s [ q.v.] memoirs and a popular etymology of the name exists. The town, was formerly an important trade-ce…