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, Misʿar b. Muhalhil al-Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲ī al-Yanbuʿī , an Arab poet, traveller and mineralogist. The earliest date in his biography is his appearance in Buk̲h̲ārā towards the end of the reign of. Naṣr b. Aḥmad (d. in 331/943). His travels in Persia hint at the years 331-341/943-952. Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, whom Abū Dulaf mentions as his patron in Sīstān (read: *Aḥmad b. Muḥammad), ruled 331-52/942-63. The author of the Fihrist (completed in 377/987) refers to him as d̲j̲awwāla “globe-trotter” and as his personal acquaintance. Al-T̲h̲aʿālibī in his Yatīmat al-Dahr …

(now Ḳuba), a district in the eastern Caucasus between Bākū and Derbend [ q.vv.]. The district of Ḳubba, with an area of 2,800 sq. miles, is bounded on the north by a large river, the Samūr, which flows into the Caspian, on the west by the “district” of Samūr which belongs to Dāg̲h̲istān [ q.v.], on the south by the southern slopes of the Caucasian range (peaks: S̲h̲āh-Dag̲h̲, 13,951 feet high, Bābā Dag̲h̲, 11,900) which separate Ḳubba from S̲h̲amāk̲h̲a (cf. the article s̲h̲īrwān ), on the southeast by the district of Bākū and on the east by the Caspian. …

, (“great one of the Magians”) a Zoroastrian dynasty which the Arabs found in the region of Dunbāwand (Damāwand [ q.v.]) to the north of Ray. The origins of the Maṣmug̲h̲āns. The dynasty seems to have been an old, though not particularly celebrated, one, as is shown by the legends recorded by Ibn al-Faḳīh, 275-7, and in al-Bīrūnī, Āt̲h̲ār , 227. The title of maṣmug̲h̲ān is said to have been conferred by Farīdūn upon Armāʾīl, Bēwarāsp’s former cook (Zohāk), who had been able to save half the young men destined to perish as food for the t…

, a small town in the Zagros Mountains of western Persia on the highroad between Kangāwar and Bīsutūn at 61 km/38 miles from Kirmāns̲h̲āh [ q.v.]. The district of Ṣaḥna contains about 28 villages inhabited by settled Turks belonging to the tribe of K̲h̲odābandalū (of Hamadān). At Ṣaḥna there are a few Ahl-i-Ḥaḳḳ [ q.v.], who are in touch with their spiritual superiors in Dīnawar [ q.v.], a frontier district in the north. Ṣaḥna must not be confused with Sinna [ q.v.] or Sanandad̲j̲ [ q.v.], the capital of the Persian province of Kurdistān, the former residence of the Wālīs of Ardalān [ q.v.]. Quit…

, a place in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān on the road from Marāg̲h̲a [ q.v.] to Urmiya [ q.v.] south of the Lake of Urmiya. The stages on this route are still obscure. At about 15 farsak̲h̲ s south of Marāg̲h̲a was the station of Barza where the road bifurcated; the main road continued southward to Dīnawar, while the northwestern one went from Barza to Tiflīs (2 farsak̲h̲s), thence to D̲j̲ābarwān (6 farsak̲h̲s), thence to Nirīz (4 farsak̲h̲s), thence to Urmiya (14 farsak̲h̲s); cf. Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih. 121 (repeated by Ḳudāma with some variations); al-Muḳaddasī, 383. The distance from Urmiya indi…

, Mūg̲h̲ān . a steppe lying to the south of the lower course of the Araxes, the northern part of which (about 5,000 square km.) belongs to the Azerbaijan SSR and the other part (50-70 × ca. 50 km.) to Persia. The steppe which covers what was once the bottom of the sea has been formed by the alluvial deposits from the Kur (in Russian, Koura) and its tributary the Araxes. (The latter has several times changed its course and one of its arms flows directly into the gulf of Ki̊zi̊l-Aghač.) In the interior, the only water in Mūg̲h̲ān is…

, a town in the Zagros Mountains of western Persia, in the mediaeval Islamic province of D̲j̲ibāl [ q.v.], situated in lat. 34° 13’ N. and long. 48° 21’ E. and lying at an altitude of 1,786 m/5,860 feet. It is on the branch of the Gāmāsāb which comes from the south-east from the vicinity of Burūd̲j̲ird; the Gāmāsāb then runs westwards to Bisūtūn. Nihāwand lies on the southern road which, coming from Kirmāns̲h̲āh (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 198), leads into central Persia (Iṣfahān) avoiding the massif of Alwand (’Οροω…

(“bridgehead of Zohāb”), a place on the way to the Zagros Mountains on the great Bag̲h̲dād-Kirmāns̲h̲āh road, taking its name from the stone bridge of two arches over the river Alwand, a tributary on the left bank of the Diyāla. Sarpul in the early 20th century consisted simply of a little fort ( ḳūr-k̲h̲āna = “arsenal”) in which the governor of Zohāb lived (the post was regularly filled by the chief of the tribe of Gūrān), a caravanserai, a garden of cypress and about 40 houses. The old town of Zohāb, about 4 hours to the no…

(aror) also written al-rūr , town in Sind; it is surmised to have been the capital of king Musicanus, defeated by Alexander the Great, and to be mentioned in the 7th century A.D. by Hiungtsang. The town was conquered by Muḥammad b. al-Ḳāsim before 95/714 (al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūh , 439, 440, 445) and it is mentioned by al-Istak̲h̲rī, 172, 175, and al-Bīrunī, Hind (Sachau), 100, 130, according to whom it lay thirty farsak̲h̲s S-W of Multān and twenty farsak̲h̲s upstream from al-Manṣūra. The Indus used to flow near the town, but later it changed its course, destroying the pro…

or Sonḳor , the name of a district and of a present-day small town in western Persia (town: lat. 34° 45′ N., long 47° 39′ E.). It lies in the Zagros Mountains between modern Kangāwar [see kinkiwar ] and Sanandad̲j̲ [ q.v.] or Sinna, within the modern province of Kirmāns̲h̲āh. In mediaeval Islamic times, it lay on the road between Dīnawar [ q.v.] and Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, and must correspond approximately to the first marḥala on the stretch from Dīnawar to Sīsar, the name of which is read al-D̲j̲ārbā (al-Muḳaddasī, 382), K̲h̲arbārd̲j̲ān (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 119; Ḳudāma, 212), etc. which was 7 f…

(or Ābaskūn ), a harbour in the south-eastern corner of the Caspian. It is described as a dependency of Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ān/Gurgān (Yāḳūt, i, 55: 3 days’ distance from Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ān; i, 91: 24 farsak̲h̲s). It might be located near the estuary of the Gurgān river (at Ḵh̲od̲j̲a-Nefes?). Al-Istak̲h̲rī, 214 (Ibn Ḥawḳal, 273) calls Abaskūn the greatest of the (Caspian) harbours. The Caspian itself was sometimes called Baḥr Abaskūn . Abaskūn possibly corresponds to Ptolemy’s Σωκανάα in Hyrcania (Gurgān). Several times Abaskūn ¶ was raided by Rūs pirates (some time between 250-70/864-84, a…

, a mystic and poet who wrote in a Persian dialect. According to Riḍā Ḳulī Ḵh̲ān (19th century), who does not give his source, Bābā-Ṭāhir lived in the period of Daylamī 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 corne in this alf” . Mahdī Ḵh̲ān in the JASB has given an extremely curious interpretation of this quatrain: the letters alf-ḳd …

, the tak̲h̲alluṣ or pen-name of the Persian poet Mīrzā Abu ’l-Ḥasan Raḥīm ( ca. 1196-1276/ ca. 1782-1859), often called by his fellow-poets Ḳaḥba-zan “whore” from the expression repeated monotonously in his obscene verse. He was born at K̲h̲ūr in the D̲j̲andaḳ oasis in the central desert of the Das̲h̲t-i Kawīr, roughly half-way between Yazd and Simnān. He began his life as a camel-herd but by the age of seven his natural gifts had been noticed by the owner of the oasis, Ismāʿīl K̲h̲ān ʿArab-i ʿĀmirī, whose secretary ( muns̲h̲ī-bās̲h̲ī ) he ultimately became. Hi…

, a town of mediaeval Islamic Persian Kurdistān, in the region bounded by Hamadān, Dīnawar and Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. The Arab geographers ¶ place Sīsar on the Dīnawar-Marāg̲h̲a road 20-22 farsak̲h̲s (3 stages) north of Dīnawar (Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih, 119-21; Ḳudāma, 212; al-Muḳaddasī, 382). According to al-Balād̲h̲urī, Futūḥ , 310, Sīsar occupied a depression ( ink̲h̲ifāḍ ) 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 al-Balād̲h̲urī …

, the old capital of Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. Position. The town lies in lat. 37° 23′ N. and long 46° 15′ E. at a height of 5,500 feet above sea-level on the southern slope of Mount Sahand (11,800 feet high) which separates it from Tabrīz [ q.v.]. This explains the very considerable difference in climate ¶ between the two towns, which are only 50 miles apart as the crow flies (by the high road 80 miles). The climate of Marāg̲h̲a is mild and rather moist (H̲amd Allāh and Mecquenem, 1904). The plentiful water supply makes the vegetation rich. The fruit of …

, a town in the district of Buk̲h̲ārā, also called Nasaf by the Arab geographers (cf. the similar evolution of Nas̲h̲awā from Nak̲h̲čiwān). The town lay in the valley of the Kas̲h̲ka-Daryā, cf. Ibn Ḥawḳal, 2460, tr. Kramers and Wiet, 444: Kas̲h̲k-rūd̲h̲, which runs southwards parallel to the Zarafs̲h̲ān (river of Samarḳand) and runs towards the Amū-Daryā [ q.v.] but before joining it disappears in the sands. Nak̲h̲s̲h̲ab lay on the road joining Buk̲h̲ārā to Balk̲h̲ four days’ journey from the former and eight from the latter (cf. al-Muḳaddasī, 344). In…

, “celestial sphere”, nom-de-plume ( tak̲h̲alluṣ ) of the Persian historian and man of letters, Mīrzā Muḥammad Taḳī of Kās̲h̲ān (d. Rabīʿ II 1297/March 1880). After a studious youth spent in his native town, he settied definitely in Tehran, where he found a patron in the poet-laureate ( malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ ) of Fatḥ ʿAlī S̲h̲āh. 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 compo…

(in Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam : Awhar), a small town owing its importance to the fact that it lies half-way between Ḳazwīn (86 km) and Zand̲j̲ān (88 km.) and that from it a road branched off southwards to Dīnawar. It was conquered in 24/645 by Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib, governor of Rayy. Between 386/996 and 409/1029 it formed the fief of a Musāfirid [ q.v.] prince. The stronghold of Sar-d̲j̲ahān (in Rāḥat al-ṣudūr : Sar-čāhān), lying some 25 km. N.W. of Abhar near a pass leading into Tārom [ q.v.] played an important rôle under the Sald̲j̲ūkids. (V. Minorsky) Bibliography Le Strange, 221 Schwarz, Iran, 726-8 Minorsky,…

(Us̲h̲nuh, Us̲h̲nūya), a district and small town of Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān. The modern town, known as Ushnuwiyya (Oshnoviyeh), situated in lat. 37° 03ʹ N., long. 45° 05ʹ E., is some 56 km/35 miles south of Urmiya [ q.v.], on which it has usually been administratively dependent. It is at present the cheflieu of a bak̲h̲s̲h̲ in the s̲h̲ahrastān of Urmiya. The present population (1991 census results) is 23,875. The district of Us̲h̲nū 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 south-west. To …

( Kangarids or Sallārids ), a dynasty of Daylamī origin which came from Ṭārum [ q.v.] and reigned in the 4th-5th/10th-11th centuries of the Hid̲j̲ra in Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān, Arrān and Armenia. Its coming to power was one of the manifestations of the great movement of Iranian liberation which formed a kind of interlude between the end of Arab domination and the first Turkish invasions. While in K̲h̲urāsān and Transoxania this movement culminated in the rule of the Sāmānids [ q.v.], in western Persia and Mesopotamia its standard-bearers were the Daylamīs and to a smaller extent…