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(a.) either the act of girding with aninitiatic belt or girdle, as practised by the chivalrous sodalities (the exponents of futuwwa [ q.v.]), the trade guilds ( aṣnāf , see below, 2., and ṣinf ), and certain Ṣūfī orders, or the belt or girdle itself. To the Arabic s̲h̲add in its verbal meaning correspond the Turkish expressions şedd kuşatmak , kuşak kuşatmak , and bel bağlamak , and the Persian kamar bastan. The origin of the custom has been attributed to the kustī , the sacred girdle of the Zoroastrians, for whom, however, girding on the kustī was a rite of passage into manhood, not of in…

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, ḥaydar b. ibrāhīm , an Imāmī ʿālim of the early 19th century. Born in Kāẓimayn ¶ in 1205/1790, he spent his entire life there, dying in 1265/1849. He was the ancestor of the Ā1 Ḥaydar, a celebrated learned family of Kāẓimayn. Among his works may be mentioned al-Bāriḳa al-Ḥaydariyya , concerning uṣūl (the principles of jurisprudence), and al-Mad̲j̲ālis al-Ḥaydariyya , consisting of scenarios for the taʿziya , the so-called S̲h̲īʿī passion play.…

, āyatullāh abu ’l-ḳāsim , an Iranian mud̲j̲tahid who played a role of some importance in the events of the early post World War II period. Born in the late 19th century, Kās̲h̲ānī went at an early age to Nad̲j̲af, where he studied under two of the …

, ʿabd al-nabī b. ʿalī , an Imāmite faḳīh and traditionist whose life spanned two of the chief areas of S̲h̲īʿī concentration, the ʿatabāt of ʿIrāḳ and the D̲j̲abal ʿĀmil in Syria. He was born in Kāẓimayn in 1198/1784 to a father of Medinan origin, and studied there under a number of prominent ʿulamāʾ , the most important being Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā and his son Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh al-S̲h̲ibrī. He was appointed treasurer at the shrine of Kāẓimayn, but in 1244/…

, k̲h̲wād̲j̲a ʿubayd allāh b. maḥmud naṣīr al-dīn (806-95/1404-90), a s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of the Naḳs̲h̲bandī order under whose auspices it became firmly rooted in Central Asia and spread also to other regions of the Islamic world; furthermore, the effective ruler of much of Transoxania for four decades. He was born in Ramaḍān 806/March 1404 in the village of Bāg̲h̲istān near Tas̲h̲kent into a family already renowned for its religious and scholarly interests. It was his maternal uncle, Ibrahi…

, K̲h̲wād̲j̲a Bahāʾ al-Dīn , Muḥammad b. Muḥammad (718-91/1318-89), eponym of the Naḳs̲h̲bandiyya [ q.v.], a still active Ṣūfī order that has been second in the extent of its diffusion only to the Ḳādiriyya [ q.v.] (with which it has often been intertwined, especially in India and Kurdistān). The epithet Naḳs̲h̲band is sometimes understood in connection with the craft of embroidering, and Bahāʾ al-Dīn is said, in fact, to have assisted his father in weaving the embroidered Buk̲h̲āran cloaks known as kimk̲h̲ā (Abu ’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad Bākir b. Muḥammad ʿAlī, Maḳāmāt-i S̲h̲āh-i Naḳs̲h̲ba…

, s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ abū isḥāḳ ibrāhīm b. s̲h̲ahriyār , founder of a Ṣūfī order variously known as the Murs̲h̲idiyya, Isḥāḳiyya and Kāzarūniyya. He was born in Kāzarūn, near S̲h̲īrāz in ¶ Fārs, in 352/963, and died there in 426/1033. He left his birthplace only once, in 388/998, to study ḥadīt̲h̲ and to perform the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ . His i…

, an offshoot of the Ḥurūfiyya sect [ q.v.] that after an incubation lasting a century emerged as a significant movement of politicoreligious opposition in Ṣafawid Persia and, in India, played some role in the origination of Akbar’s Dīn-i Ilāhī [ q.v.]. Given its similarities not only with Ḥurūfism but also with Nizārī Ismāʿīlism, it may be regarded as one more link in the long chain of Persian heresies. The designation Nuḳṭawiyya is said to be taken from the doctrine that earth is the starting point ( nuḳṭa ) of all things, the remaining three elements being …

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, an important mystical ṭariḳa [ q.v.] or order. 1. In Persia It is a paradox of Naḳs̲h̲bandī history that although this Ṣūfī order first arose among Persian-speakers and virtually all its classical texts are written in the Persian language, its impact on Persia has been relatively slight. This statement requires qualification only for the period of the genesis of the Naḳs̲h̲bandiyya when, it might be argued, Transoxania and the eastern reaches of K̲h̲urāsān still counted as parts of the Persian world. The rise of the Naḳs̲h̲bandiyya to supremacy in Transoxiana appears to hav…

, Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. S̲h̲āhāwar Asadī (573-654/1177-1256), Ṣūfī of the Kubrawī order [see kubrā , nad̲j̲m al-dīn ] and author of several important works in Persian and Arabic. He left his native city of Rayy at the age of twenty-six and travelled widely in Syria, Egypt, the Ḥid̲j̲āz, ʿIrāḳ, and Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. He ultimately turned eastwards, passing through Nīs̲h̲āpūr before arr…

, Mīrzā , Nāẓim al-Dawla (1249-1326/1833-1908). Perso-Armenian diplomat, journalist and concession-monger, important in the history of 19th-century Iran for his early advocacy of governmental reform and thorough-going westernisation, themes he expounded first in a series of privately-circulated treatises and then in the celebrated newspaper Ḳānūn . He was born in the Iṣfahān suburb of D̲j̲ulfā [ q.v. in Suppl.] to an Armenian family whose ancestors had been transplanted there by S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās from Ḳarabāg̲h̲ [ q.v.] in the southern Caucasus. His father, Mīrzā Yaʿḳūb, was converted to Islam some time after the birth of Malkom, but the profession of Islam sat lightly on the shoulders of father and son; both appear to have believed in a “religion of humanity”, inspired by freemansonry and the theories of Auguste Comte. Recognising the importance of Islam in Iranian society, Malkom generally took care to present his proposals in Islamically-acceptable terms (see H. R. Haweis, …

, Abu ’l-Maʿālī Saʿīd b. Muṭahhar b. Saʿīd b. ʿAlī (586-659/1190-1261), known honorifically as S̲h̲ayk̲h̲-i ʿĀlam and, more familiarly, as K̲h̲wād̲j̲a-yi Fatḥābādī, in reference to the Buk̲h̲āran suburb of Fatḥābād where he established a k̲h̲ānaḳāh , a leading disciple of Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221), eponym of the Kubrawī order [ q.v.]. After elementary education in his birthplace of Bāk̲h̲arz, a town in the Ḳuhistān region of K̲h̲urāsān, Sayf al-Dīn studied jurisprudence and the recitation and exegesis of the Ḳurʾān in Harāt and Nīs̲h̲āpūr before proceeding to K̲h̲wārazm, the seat of Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Kubrā. According to Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ (cited in Amīr Ḥasan Sid̲j̲zī, Fawāʾid al-fuʾād , Bulands̲h̲ahr 1275/1855, 268-9), Bāk̲h̲arzī was initially hostile to Kubrā, and even to Ṣūfism as such, but this is not confirmed by any early source. Even before going to K̲h̲wārazm, Bāk̲h̲arzī had received at least one Ṣūfī cloak of initiation, from a certain S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Tād̲j̲ al-Dīn Maḥmūd in Harāt, and there can be no doubt that he went to K̲h̲wārazm expressly to join Kubrā’s circle. Thanks to an exemplary degree of devotion, he …

, a Persian Ṣūfī order that soon after its inception in the 8th/14th century transferred its loyalties to S̲h̲īʿī Islam. The Niʿmat Allāhiyya first took root in south-eastern Persia where it continued to prosper until the time of S̲h̲āh ʿAbbās. For the n…

, an Islamic mystical tradition which probably originated in 3rd/9th century Nīs̲h̲āpūr. 1. In the Central Islamic Lands The foundation of this tradition has been attributed to Ḥamdūn al-Ḳaṣṣār (d. 271/884-5 [ q.v. and see further on him below, section 2]). One of the main sources for the study of its doctrine is the Risālat al-Malāmatiyya by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Sulamī (330-412/941-1021). This treatise (see Bibl .) contains a number of sayings by early authorities concerning the Malāmatiyya and an enumeration of the principles ( …

(d. 860/1456), s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ of the Naḳs̲h̲bandī Ṣūfī order in Harāt, best known as the preceptor of the poet and mystic ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ḏj̲āmī (d. 898/1492 [ q.v.]). Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī’s piety first showed itself, it is said, during the journeys on which as a child he used to accompany his father, a merchant of Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar with sayyid ancestry. Thus when he was twelve years of age, he wept uncontrollably after listening to his father and his associates passionately haggling over the price of some goods for a whole morning. After completing the madrasa curriculum (the s…

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, Āg̲h̲ā K̲h̲ān , Sayyid Ḥasan ʿAlī S̲h̲āh. last of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī imām s ¶ to reside in Iran and the first of them to bear the title of Āg̲h̲ā (less commonly but more correctly, Āḳā) K̲h̲ān. Born in 1219/1804 in the village of Kahak near Maḥallāt in central Iran, he succeeded to the imāmate in 1233/1817 when his father, S̲h̲āh K̲h̲alīl Allāh, was murdered in Yazd. Fatḥ ʿAlī S̲h̲āh, the Ḳād̲j̲ār ruler, amply compensated the young imām . His lands at Maḥallāt were extended by royal decree; he was given a daughter of Fatḥ ʿAlī S̲h̲āh in marriage; a…