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, or alta s̲h̲ahr (the word "six" is always written alta in Chinese Turkistān), "six towns", a name for part of Chinese Turkistān (Sin-kiang) comprising the towns of Kuča, Aḳ Su, Uč Turfān (or Us̲h̲ Turfān), Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar, Yārkand and Ḵh̲otan. It appears to have been first used in the 18th century (cf. M. Hartmann, Der Islamische Orient , i, 226, 278). Yangi Ḥiṣār, between Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar and Yārkand, is sometimes added as the seventh town (though it also frequently counted as one of the six, in which case either Kuča or Uč Turfān is…

Arab. d̲j̲anza , the former Elizavetpol , now Kirovabad , the second largest town in the Azerbaijan S.S.R. ¶ The town was first founded under Arab rule, in 245/859 according to the Ta’rīk̲h̲ Bāb al-abwāb (V. Minorsky,A History of Sharvān and Darband , Cambridge 1958, 25 and 57). It is not mentioned by the oldest Arabic geographers like Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih and Yaʿḳūbī; it seems to have taken its name from the pre-Muslim capital of Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān (now the ruins of Tak̲h̲t-i-Sulaymān). Iṣṭak̲h̲rī. 187 and 193, mentions Gand̲j̲a only as a small town on the road from Bard̲h̲aʿa [ q.v.] to Tif…

or balāsaḳūn , a town in the valley of the Ču, in what is now Kirg̲h̲izia. The medieval geographers give only vague indications as to its position. Barthold, Otčet o poyezdke v Sredniya Aziyu , St. Petersburg 1897, 39, suggests its identity with Aḳ-Pes̲h̲in in the region of Frunze. A. N. Bernshtam, Čuyskaya dolina in Materialī i issledovaniya arkheologii S.S.S.R ., No 14 (1950), 47-55, agrees with Barthold and gives a description of the site. The town was a Soghdian foundation and in Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī’s time, i.e., in the second half of the 11th century, the Soghdian language still …

, a garrison town and administrative centre in Eastern Turkey, situated on 40°37′ N. and 43°06′ E., chef-lieu of the il (province) of the same name, which is bounded by the U.S.S.R. and the ils of Artvin, Erzurum and Aǧri̊ and contains the ilçes (districts) of Posof, Hanak, Çildir, Ardahan, Göle, Susuz, Arpaçay, Selim, Digor, Sarikamiş, Kaǧizman, Tuzluca and Aralik, with that of Kars itself. In 1960 the population of the provinces of Kars was 543,000; in 1965 (provisional), 606,521, of which 20% was urban and 80% agricultural or rural ( Kars Il yilliǧi 1967, Ankara n.d.). The etymologies su…

, in the Arabic sources frequently al-bāmiyān , a town in the Hindu-Kus̲h̲ north of the main range in a mountain valley lying 8,480 feet above sea level, through which one of the most important roads between the lands of the Oxus watershed and the Indus leads; the town is therefore naturally important as a commercial centre and was important in the middle ages as a fortress also. Although the valley, that of the Kunduz river, really belongs to the Oxus watershed and is separated from Kābul by high mountain passes, e.g., the Shibar and Unnai, its political association has often shifted…

, a small district on both sides of the middle Jaxartes at the mouth of its tributary, the Aris, which flows from Isfid̲j̲āb. It is also the name of the principal settlement in this district. The older Persian form Pārāb occurs in Ḥudūd al-ʿālam , (72, 118 ff., 122), the form Bārāb in Iṣṭak̲h̲rī (346) and Muḳaddasī (273; but also Fārāb) as well as in the later Persian sources. The extent of the district in both length and breadth was less than a day’s journey (Ibn Ḥawḳal, 390 ff.). According to Masʿūdī ( Tanbīh , 366) the region was flooded annually at the end of Ja…

(thus on his coins: Mong. Möngke-Temür, sometimes written also Mūngkā (e.g. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Blochet, 109); in Russian annals Mengutimer and Mengutemer, called also Külük “Glorious”, “Famous”), k̲h̲ān of the Golden Horde (665-79/1267-80), grandson of the k̲h̲ān Bātū [ q.v.] and son of Toḳūḳān (Tog̲h̲on). His predecessor Berke [ q.v.] died, according to al-D̲h̲ahabī, in Rabīʿ II 665/30 Dec. 1266 - 27 Jan. 1267 (see Tiesenhausen, 210-2; other Egyptian sources mention only the year). In Ṣafar 666/Oct.-Nov. 1267), an embassy left Cairo which w…

, district in Soviet Türkmenistān on the northern slope of the frontier-mountains of Ḵh̲urāsān (Kopet Dag̲h̲), between the modern railway ¶ stations Gjaurs and Dus̲h̲ak. The name is really Turkish, Etek, "edge border" (of the mountain-chain), and is a translation of the Persian name given to this district, viz. Dāman-i Kūh, "foot of the mountain"; but the word is always written Ātak by the Persians. During the Middle Ages no special name for Atek appears to have been in use; being a district of the town of Abīward [ q.v.] it belonged to Ḵh̲urāsān. In the 10th/16th and 11th/17th cent…

was between 1882 and 1890 the name of a district ( uězd ) in the Russian territory ( oblastʾ ) of Transcaspia, which had been conquered by the Russians in 1881. It comprised the subdistricts of Atek [ q.v.] (chief place: the village of Kaak̲h̲ka) and Durūn [ q.v.] (Darūn; chief place: Bak̲h̲arden). Since 1890 the district is called ʿAs̲h̲ḳābād [ q.v.]—The name Āk̲h̲āl (which is of modern origin) applies to the oases on the northern slope of the Kopet Dag̲h̲ and Küren Dag̲h̲; Tekke refers to the Tekke or Teke [ q.v.] Turkmen, the present inhabitants of this region. The Islamic geographe…

(alp tigin), the founder of the G̲h̲aznawid power. Like the majority of the praetorians of his time, he was a Turkish slave, purchased and enrolled in the Sāmānid body guard, who progressively rose to the rank of ḥād̲j̲ib al-ḥud̲j̲d̲j̲āb (commander-in-chief of the guard). In this capacity he wielded the real power during the reign of the young Sāmānid ʿAbd al-Malik I; the vizier Abū ʿAlī al-Balʿamī owed his appointment to him, and did not dare to take any action "without the knowledge and advice" of Alp Takīn. …

, prince of Marw 1197-1200/1783-1786, a member of the ruling branch of the house of Ḳād̲j̲ār which ruled there from the time of ʿĀbbās I [ q.v.]. In his own day, he was renowned as a valiant warrior. During a war against Murād-Bī (S̲h̲āh Maʿṣūm) of Buk̲h̲ārā, he was ambushed and killed. His second son, Muḥammad Karīm, succeeded him in Marw; his eldest son, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, dedicated his life to learning in Mas̲h̲had, and was regarded as the “Plato of his day” ( Aflāṭūn-i Waḳt ). (W. Barthold [B. Spuler]) Bibliography Mīr ʿAbd al-Karīm Buk̲h̲ārī, Histoire de l’Asie Centrale, ed. Schefer, i (t…

, occasionally Dūḳlāt , a Mongol tribe whose name, according to Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī (ed. Desmaisons, St. Petersburg 1871, i, 65), derives from the plural of the Mongol word dog̲h̲olong (-lang) “lame”. The tribe appears to have played no part in the early period of the Mongol Empire, though it is supposed always to have supported Čingiz K̲h̲ān (Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn, ed. Berezin in Trudi̊ vost. otd. Imp. Russk. Ark̲h̲eol. obs̲h̲čestva , vii, 275, xiii/text 47, 52; tr. L. A. Khetagurov, Moscow-Leningrad 1952, i/1, 193). At that time the tribe apparently …

, a Tatar K̲h̲ān of Siberia, in whose reign this country was conquered by the Russians. Abu ’l G̲h̲āzī (ed. Desmaisons, 177), is the only authority to give information regarding his origin and his genealogical relation to the other descendants of Čingiz K̲h̲ān. According to this source, he reigned for forty years in “Tūrān”, lost his eyesight towards the end of his life, was driven from his kingdom by the Russians in 1003/1594-5, took refuge with the Mang̲h̲i̊t (Nogay) and died among them. Refer…

or āl barmak (Barmakids), an Iranian family of secretaries and wazīrs of the early ʿAbbāsid Caliphs. 1. Origins. The name Barmak , traditionally borne by the ancestor of the family, was not a propei name, according to certain Arab authors, but a word designating the office of hereditary high priest of the temple of Nawbahār, near Balk̲h̲. This interpretation is confirmed by the etymology which is now accepted, deriving the term from the Sanskrit word parmak — “superior, chief. The term Nawbahār, moreover, likewise derives from Sanskrit ( nōva vihāra —”new monast…

, the name of a land-locked river-system in the western part of what is now the Kazakhstan Republic and also of a town on the river Turgay (lat. 49° 38′ N., long. 63° 25′ E.) some 640 km/380 miles east-south-east of Orenburg. It lies in the steppe region now known as the Turgayskay̲a̲ Stolovay̲a̲ Strana. The main river Turgay is formed of the Kari̊nsaldi̊ Turgay, which receives the Tasti̊ Turgay, and the Kara Turgay, and flows into Lake Durukča; north of it runs the Sari̊ Turgay, which is called Ulkuntamdi̊ in its upper course and receives from the …

, the fifth in succession of the Mongol Il-Ḵh̲āns of Persia and a grandson of Hülegü, the founder of the dynasty. He reigned only for a few months since Gayk̲h̲atu, his predecessor, was strangled on Thursday 6 D̲j̲umādā II/21 April 1295 and he himself was put to death on Wednesday 23 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda/5 October of the same year. Insulted by Gayk̲h̲atu, this young and apparently unimportant prince had become involved in a conspiracy of the Mongol amīrs against the Il-Ḵh̲ān whic…

(usually written K̲h̲ān Bālīḳ), the “K̲h̲ān’s town”, the name of Pekin, the capital of the Mongol Emperors after 1264 in Eastern Turkī and Mongol and afterwards adopted by the rest of the Muslim world and even by Western Europe ( Cambaluc and variants in S. Hallberg, l’Extrême Orient dans la littérature et la cartographie de l’Occident, Göteborg 1906, 105 f.). According to Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn (ed. Berezin, Trudi̊ Vost . Otd . Ark̲h̲ . Obs̲h̲č . xv, Persian text, 34), Pekin (Chinese, then Čūngdū, i.e. “the middle capital”) was called K̲h̲ānbāli̊ḳ even…

1. For all practical purposes the term Abk̲h̲āz or Afk̲h̲āz , in early Muslim sources covers Georgia and Georgians (properly Ḏj̲urzān , q.v.). The reason (cf. below under 2.) is that a dynasty issued from Abk̲h̲āzia ruled in Georgia at the time of the early ʿAbbāsids. A distinction between the Abk̲h̲ăzian dynasty and the Georgian rulers on the upper Kur is made by al-Masʿūdī, ii, 65, 74. The people properly called Abk̲h̲āz is possibly referred to only in the tradition represented by Ibn Rusta, 139: , read * Awg̲h̲az , see Marquart, Streifzüge , 164-76, and Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam …

, or burdas (in al-Bakrī furdās ), pagan tribe of the Volga basin. For an account of the Burṭās and their neighbours the Ḵh̲azars and the Bulg̲h̲ārs, to the north and south, see bulg̲h̲ār . Al-Masʿūdī ( Murūd̲j̲ , ii, 14 & Tanbīh , 62) lists Burṭās also as a river flowing into the Itil (Volga); Marquart identifies this stream with Samara ( Streifzüge , 336). The sources do not mention any adherents to Islam among the Burṭās, which contrasts with their accounts of the Ḵh̲azars and Bulg̲h̲ārs. Yāḳūt’s report on the Burṭās (i, 567) is base…

(t. “Red sand”), a desert between the Si̊r-Daryā and Āmū-Daryā rivers [ qq. v., and also ḳarā-ḳum ], falling within the modern Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan SSRs. The country is less uniform, especially in the central part, than in the Ḳarā-Ḳum; the sand desert is crossed by several ranges of hills, and in some places is rocky. The Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ḳum ¶ becomes more and more inhospitable as one goes southwards. The region called Adam-Ḳi̊zi̊lg̲h̲an (“where man perishes”) between the Āmū-Daryā and the cultivated region of Buk̲h̲ārā, consisting of sandhills ( bark̲h̲ān ), is …