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, Nawwāb , thirteenth son of the celebrated Rohilla leader Ḥāfiẓ al-Mulk Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān (1707-74) and author of a biography of his father, which he wrote in Persian under the title Gulistān-i Raḥmat . Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān, who was an Afg̲h̲ān of the tribe of Yūsufzāy by descent, had been since 1161/1748 a chief in Rohilk̲h̲and (Kat́ahr) and throughout his life waged a bitter warfare with the Marāt́hās. He fell in 1188/1774 in a fight at Mīrānpūr Katra where he was fighting against the combined forces of the Nawwāb of Oudh (Awadh [ q.v.]) S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ al-Mulk and the English. Warren Ha…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn (d. 751/1350), a famous Persian author (not to be confused with the famous Ṣūfī S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Abū Turāb Nak̲h̲s̲h̲abī, d. 245/860). Very little is known of his career. His nisba suggests tha…

(d. 933/1526-7), Persian writer and author of the famous …

, Bark̲h̲wurdar b. Maḥmud Turkmān Farāhī , a Persian writer, a contemporary of the Ṣafawid Sultan Ḥusayn I (1105-35/1694-1722). At an early age, he left his native town of Farāh in Afg̲h̲ānistān and went to Marw, where he entered the service of the governor Aṣlān K̲h̲ān. After two years, however, he left this post and became muns̲h̲ī [ q.v.] with Ḥasan Ḳūlī K̲h̲ān S̲h̲āmlū Ḳūrčī-bas̲h̲ī in Iṣfahān. At a banquet there at his master’s house he heard a story which attracted him exceedingly. He wrote it down and it became the foundation of a great collection, the Maḥfil-ārā , which contained about 400 stories and consisted of a muḳaddima , eight …

b. Ḳāḍī Mubārak , known as K̲h̲alīl Ṣūfī, author of a PersianTurkish dictionary entitled Lug̲h̲at-i Niʿmat Allāh . Born in Sofia, where as an enameller he made a reputation as an artist, he moved to Istanbul and there entered the Naḳs̲h̲bandī order. Association with the Naḳs̲h̲bandī dervishes made him more closely acquainted with literature and especially with Persian poetry. Niʿmat Allāh decided to make accessible to others the knowledge he had acquired by an ar…

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, Ḥasan , a Persian historian whose full name was Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥasan . Born in Nīs̲h̲āpūr, he went on the advice of his s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Muḥammad Kūfī to G̲h̲aznī to give an opportunity to his remarkable talents as a stylist. A severe illness forced him to leave G̲h̲aznī, and he went to Dihlī were he obtained an appointment as court historian to the G̲h̲ūrid Sultans and began, in 602/1206, his great historical work Tād̲j̲ al-maʾāt̲h̲ir fi ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲ , which brought him great fame. It deals with the history of the first three sultans of Dihlī—th…

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, a Persian historian. His father was for 35 years in the service of the Great Mug̲h̲al Akbar (963-1014/1556-1605) where he was a k̲h̲āliṣa inspector. Niʿmat Allāh himself was for 11 years historian to D̲j̲ahāngīr (1014-37/1605-28), then entered the service of K̲h̲ān-D̲j̲ahān Lōdī [ q.v.] whom he accompanied in 1018/1609-10 on the campaign against the Deccan. Soon afterwards he became acquainted with Miyān Haybat K̲h̲ān b. Salīm K̲h̲ān Kākar of Sāmāna, who persuaded him to write a history of the reign of K̲h̲ān-D̲j̲ahān. Niʿmat Allāh bega…

( ca. 1016-81/1607-70), a Persian poet. Mullā Nāẓim, son of S̲h̲āh Riḍā Sabzawārī, was born in Harāt about 1016/1607 and spent the greater part of his life there. Little is known of his career, except that he made a journey to India and, after spending several years in D̲j̲ahāngīrnagar, returned to his native town where he died in 1081/1670-71. He was court poet of the Beglerbegis of Harāt and his greatest work, the Yūsuf ¶ u Zulayk̲h̲ā , begun in 1058/1648 and finished in 1072/1661-2, was dedicated to one of these governors, ʿAbbās Ḳūlī K̲h̲ān S̲h̲…

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(d. in Dihlī on 6 Ramaḍān 1108/29 March 1697, one of the best of the Persian poets of India, who were by this time very numerous; their productions however are for the most part of little artistic value. Of his life we know only that he travelled a great deal but finally settled in ¶ Sirhind, where he enjoyed the favour of the governor Sayf K̲h̲ān Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ī and of the Amīr al-Umarāʾ D̲h̲u ’l-Fiḳār K̲h̲ān. His principal work is a version of the love story of Madhumalat and Manūhar in Persian verse, the original having …

, Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Wahhāb of Iṣfahān, one of the best Persian poets and stylists of the period of the early Ḳād̲j̲ārs. He was a physician in S̲h̲īrāz and kalāntār [ q.v.] and governor in his native city, devoting his leisure hours to poetry in which he displayed a great facility. He wrote verse in Arabic, Persian and Turkish and was further celebrated for his great skill in s̲h̲ikasta . Rumours of his poetical gifts induced the Ḳād̲j̲ār Fatḥ ʿAlī S̲h̲āh (1797-1834) to invite him to Tehran as court poet. There Nas̲h̲āṭ soon rose to great honour…

, Amīn aḥmad , a Persian biographer of the later 10th/16th and early 11th/17th centuries. ¶ Hardly anything is known of his life. He belonged to Rayy, where his father K̲h̲ w ād̲j̲a Mīrzā Aḥmad was celebrated for his wealth and benevolence. The latter was in high favour with S̲h̲āh Ṭahmāsp and was appointed by him kalāntar [ q.v.] of his native town. His paternal uncle K̲h̲ w ād̲j̲a Muḥammad S̲h̲arīf was vizier of K̲h̲urāsān, Yazd and Iṣfahān, and his cousin G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ Beg a high official at the court of the Emperor Akbar. Amīn himself is said to have visited I…

, Mīr ʿAbd al-ʿāl , a Persian poet, born about 1046/1636-7, the son of a Ḥusaynī Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Muʾmin of Iṣfahān. Little is known of his life. Only this much is certain, that he, like many other Persian poets of this time, worked in the offices of different Persian dignitaries. For example, he was a mustawfī [ q.v.] with the Ṣadr Mirzā Ḥabīb Allāh, later occupied the same office in Astarābād and ended his career in 1126/1714 after being for many years muns̲h̲ī with the Ṣafawid princes S̲h̲āh Sulaymān (1077-1105/1666-94) and S̲h̲āh Sulṭān Ḥusayn (110…

, Mīrzā , Muns̲h̲ī of the Ḳad̲j̲ār prince D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Mīrzā and translator into Persian of the famous comedies of the Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ānī playwright Mīrzā Fatḥ ʿAlī Āk̲h̲undzāde [ q.v.]. After they had been published (1859), Mīrzā Fatḥ ʿAlī sent a copy of his plays to the above-mentioned Ḳād̲j̲ār prince in the hope that he would take notice of it. But the book lay unheeded for years in the prince’s library until Muḥammad D̲j̲aʿfar opened it by chance. The muns̲h̲ī , delighted with the plays, at once decided to translate them into Persian. As no-one …

, Mīrzā Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad , son of Ḥakīm Fatḥ al-Dīn S̲h̲īrāzī, a Persian author, was born in India and came of a family several of whom had been distinguished physicians in their ancestral home in S̲h̲īrāz. He entered the service of the state under S̲h̲āh-D̲j̲ahān (1037-68/1628-57) and was appointed keeper of the crown jewels with the title of dārūg̲h̲a-yi d̲j̲awāhir-k̲h̲āna . He attained his highest honours under Awrangzīb (1069-1118/1659-1707), who gave him the title of Niʿmat K̲h̲ān (1104/1692-3), which was later changed to Muḳ…

, the tak̲h̲alluṣ or pen-name of Yūsuf b. Muḥammad b. Yūsuf K̲h̲urāsānī, native of K̲h̲wāf and émigré to India, where he became physician to the Mug̲h̲al emperors Bābur and Humāyūn [ q.vv.] and a prolific writer on medical topics. It is also very probably the same Yūsufī who is the author of an ins̲h̲āʾ collection (see below). Several of his Persian medical works are extant, including a Dalāʾil al-bawl on diagnosis through examination of the urine; a Dalāʾil al-nabḍ on interpretation of the pulse; various ḳaṣīda s and ḳiṭʿa s on medical topics; rubāʿiyyāt , on which…

, S̲h̲araf al-Dīn Ḥasan b. Muḥammad, Persian rhetorician and poet, who ¶ flourished in the middle of the 8th/14th century. Very little is known about his life and the few chronological indications that we possess are either imprecise or unreliable. Dawlats̲h̲āh states that he was the poet laureate ( malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ [ q.v.]) of ʿIrāḳ during the reign of the Muẓaffarid S̲h̲āh Manṣūr (reigned 789-95/1387-93), but dedications in his two most important works prove that he attended the court of Sultan Abu ’l-Fatḥ Uways Bahādur or S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Uways (757-76/1356-74) of the D̲j̲alāyirids [ q.…

b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Niẓām al-Dīn Abu ’l-Maʿālī, also known as Naṣr Allāh Muns̲h̲ī, a Persian author and statesman who was born at G̲h̲azna in a family which came from S̲h̲īrāz. He served as a secretary in the dīwān of the G̲h̲aznawids. Under K̲h̲usraw Malik (555-82/1160-86) he rose to the rank of a vizier but he fell into disgrace with this sultan and was executed while in prison (cf. ʿAwfī, Lubāb , i, 92 ff.). Naṣr Allāh Muns̲h̲ī’s fame rests on his version ( Tard̲j̲uma ) of the Indian mirror for princes Kalīla wa Dimna [ q.v.] into Persian prose, which was based on the Arabic of ʿAbd Allā…