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Sārt

(1,473 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Subtelny, M.E.
, a term found in the history and ethnography of the Persian and Central Asian worlds. Originally an old Turkic word for “merchant”, it occurs with this meaning in the 11th-century sources, such as Maḥmūd al-Kāshg̲h̲arī’s encyclopaedic dictionary Dīwān lug̲h̲āt al-Turk ( Compendium of the Turkic dialects, tr. R. Dankoff and J. Kelly, 3 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1982-5, i, 269), and the ¶ Ḳarak̲h̲ānid mirror for princes, Ḳutadgu bilig by Yūsuf K̲h̲āṣṣ Ḥād̲j̲ib (ed. R.R. Arat, Istanbul 1947, i, 571). For references to other editions of both works, see Drevnetyurkskiy slovar’, Leningrad …

Ḥaydar Mīrzā

(676 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(his real name was Muḥammad Ḥaydar; as he himself says, he was known as Mīrzā Ḥaydar; Bābur calls him Ḥaydar Mīrzā), a Persian historian, author of the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Ras̲h̲īdī , born in 905/1499-1500, died in 958/1551 (for his descent see dūg̲h̲lāt ); through his mother he was a grandson of the Čag̲h̲atāy K̲h̲ān Yūnus and a cousin of Bābur. Most of our knowledge of his life is gleaned from his own work; Bābur (ed. Beveridge, p. 11) devotes a few lines to him; the Indian historians Abu ’l-Faḍl and Firis̲h̲ta give some information about his later years. After the assassination of his father (91…

Batu

(1,553 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
(in Arabic script bātū ), a Mongol prince, the conqueror of Russia and founder of the Golden Horde (1227-1255), born in the early years of the 13th century, the second son of D̲j̲oči [see d̲j̲ūčī ]. During Čingiz-Ḵh̲ān’s lifetime D̲j̲oči, as his eldest son, had received as his yurt or appanage the territory stretching from the regions of Ḳayalïḳ and Ḵh̲wārazm to Saḳsïn and Bulg̲h̲ār on the Volga “and as far in that direction as the hoof of Tartar horse had penetrated”. The eastern part of this vast area, i.e., Western Siberia, the present-day Kazak̲h̲stān and the lower basin of the …

Bālik

(123 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Turko-Mongol word for “town” = or “castle” (also written bāliḳ and bālig̲h̲ ); appears frequently in compound names of towns, such as Bīs̲h̲bāliḳ (“Five Towns”, at the present day in ruins at Gučen in Chinese Turkestan), Ḵh̲ānbāliḳ (the “Ḵh̲ān’s Town”), Turko-Mongol name for Pekin (also frequently used by European travellers in the middle ages in forms like (Cambalu), Ilibāliḳ (on the River Ili, the modern Iliysk) etc. As the town of Bās̲h̲bāliḳ is mentioned as early as the Ork̲h̲on i…

Abu ’l-K̲h̲ayr

(686 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, ruler of the Özbegs [see uzbeks ] and founder of the power of this nation, descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲uči’s youngest son [see s̲h̲aybānids ], born in the year of the dragon (1412; as the year of the hid̲j̲ra 816/1413-4 is erroneously given). At first he is said to have been in the service of another descendant of S̲h̲aybān, Ḏj̲amaduḳ Ḵh̲ān. The latter met his death in a revolt; Abu ’l-Ḵh̲ayr was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly after proclaimed k̲h̲ān in the territory of Tura (Siber…

Balk̲h̲ān

(206 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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…

Ḳurama

(754 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, according to Radloff ( Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk-Dialecte , St. Petersburg 1899, ii, 924) “a Turkish tribe in Turkistan”; the same authority gives the Kirgiz (i.e. Ḳazaḳ) word ḳurama (from ḳura , “to sew together pieces of cloth”) with the meaning “a blanket made of pieces of cloth sewn together”. In another passage ( Aus Sibirien 2, Leipzig 1893, i, 225) Radloff himself says that the Kurama are “a mixed people of Özbegs and Kirgiz” and their name comes from the fact, asserted by the Kirgiz, that “they are made up of patches from many tribes” ( kura to “patch…

Ḳāzān

(1,805 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bennigsen, A.
, Ḳazān , a town on the middle Volga, now the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan in the USSR, and in the 15th and 16th centuries capital of the K̲h̲ānate of the same name. According to legendary accounts, the town was founded by Batu K̲h̲ān in a Turkish and Muslim region which had been part of the ancient kingdom of Bulg̲h̲ār [ q.v.] before the Mongol invasions. The K̲h̲ānate of Ḳāzān was founded in the first half of the 15th century by a Čingizid descendant, Ulu Muḥammad, son of D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn and grandson of Toḳtami̊s̲h̲, at the time when the Gold…

Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān

(3,687 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bennigsen, A. | Carrère-d'Encausse, H.
, also frequently written bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲h̲ān and sometimes in the literary language (with the Arabic plural inflection) badak̲h̲s̲h̲ānāt , a mountainous region situated on the left bank of the upper reaches of the Āmū-Daryā or more accurately of the Pand̲j̲, the source of this great river; the adjective derived from this noun is Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ānī or Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ī . J. Marquart ( Erāns̲h̲ahr , 279) gives this name the meaning of “region of Bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲h̲ or Balak̲h̲s̲h̲, a type of ruby, which, it is said, is only found in Bad̲h̲ak̲h̲s̲…

Ḳaraḳorum

(506 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, a town in the aymak of Övör K̲h̲angay in Central Mongolia, now in ruins; in the 7th/13th century it was for a short time the capital of the Mongol World Empire. The fullest accounts of the town are given by the European traveller William of Rubruck and the Persian historian D̲j̲uwaynī [ q.v.]. The ruins were first discovered in 1889 by N. M. Yadrentsey; they were visited and described by the members of the Russian expedition of 1891 led by Radlov; and in 1948-49 an expedition jointly organized by the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People’s Repub…

ʿAbd Allāh b. Iskandar

(830 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a S̲h̲aybānid [ q.v.], the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 940/1533-4 (the dragon year 1532-3 is given, probably more accurately, as the year of the cycle) at Āfarīnkent in Miyānkāl (an island between the two arms of the Zarafs̲h̲ān). The father (Iskandar Ḵh̲ān), grandfather (Ḏj̲ānī Beg) and great-grandfather (Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad, son of Abu ‘l-Ḵh̲ayr [ q.v.]) of this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, almost stupid men. Ḏj̲ānī Beg (d. 935/1528-9) had at the distribution of 918/1512-3 received Karmīna and Miyānkāl; Iskandar …

Kur

(302 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Savory, R.M.
, the largest river in the Caucasus (according to Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī Ḳazwīnī, 200 farsak̲h̲ s = nearly 800 miles in length). The Ḳur, known as Cyrus to the Greeks; Nahr al-Kurr to the Arabs; Kura to the Russians (said to be derived from a-kuara, “river”, in the Abk̲h̲āzī tongue); and Mtkvari to the Georgians (said to be derived from mdinaré , “river” in the Kartlian dialect), rises in Georgia south of Ardahani (west of Ḳārṣ in the Poso district), and flows northwards to Akhaltzikhé, where it turns east (see map in V. Minorksy, A History of Sharvān and Darband in the 10th-11th centuries, Cambridg…

Burāḳ (or rather Baraḳ) K̲h̲ān

(716 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, a ruler of the Čag̲h̲atay Ḵh̲ānate. A grandson of Mö’etüken, who fell before Bāmiyān, his father, Yesün-To’a, had been banished to China for his part in the conspiracy against the Great Ḵh̲an Möngke. Burāḳ himself began his career at the court of Möngke’s successor, Ḳubilay Ḵh̲an (1260-94). When in March 1266 Mubārak-S̲h̲āh, the son of Ḳara-Hülegü, was elected to the Čag̲h̲atay Ḵh̲ānate, Ḳubilay dispatched Burāḳ to Mā warāʾ al-Nahr with a yarlīg̲h̲ or rescript appointing him co-regent with his cousin. Burāḳ at first concealed the yarlīg̲h̲ and then, having gained the support of…

Ḳi̊rgi̊z

(2,312 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Hazai, G.
, a Turkish people, mentioned as early as the oldest Chinese accounts of Central Asia (from the 2nd century A.D.) under the name Kien-Kuen, which according to P. Pelliot ( JA, Ser. 2, vol. xv, 137) goes back to a Mongol word, singular ḳirḳun . The lands of the Kirgiz are not exactly defined in these sources; according to a very reliable source, the land of the Kien-Kuen lay north-west of the land of the K’ang-Kiu, i.e. of Sogdiana. The name Ḳi̊rg̲h̲i̊z first appears in the Ork̲h̲on inscriptions of the 8th century; at…

Is̲h̲ān

(268 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Wheeler, G.E.
3rd pers. plur. of the Persian personal pronoun. The word, which has always had an honorific significance, was formerly used in Central Asia ( i.e., what is now Soviet Central Asia and the Sinkiang-Uygur Autonomous Region of China) in the sense of s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ or murs̲h̲id (teacher or guide) in contrast to murīd (disciple or pupil). It has still to be established when the term first appeared in this sense. It certainly existed in the middle ages; the celebrated Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Aḥrār (died 895/1490 in Samarḳand) is always referred to as is̲h̲ān in his biography. The rank of is̲h̲ān was frequently …

D̲j̲uwaynī

(1,552 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAṭā-Malik b. Muḥammad (623/1226-681/1283), a Persian governor and historian, author of the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i d̲j̲ahāngus̲h̲āy , a work which is almost our only source on the details of his life. His family belonged to Āzādwār, then the chief town of Ḏj̲uwavn ([ q.v.], No. 2). According to Ibn al-Ṭiḳṭaḳā ( al-Fak̲h̲rī , ed. Ahlwardt, 209) they claimed descent from Faḍl b. Rabīʿ, the vizier of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn’s great-grandfather, Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, had waited on the K̲h̲wārazm-S̲h̲āh Tekis̲h̲ [ q.v.] when in 588/1192 he passed through Āzādwār…

Bābā Beg

(76 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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])

Terek

(393 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, a large river of the northeastern Caucasus region (length 600 km/373 miles, with a breadth in some places of up to 547 m/1,500 feet). It rises from the glaciers of Mount Kazbek in the central Caucasus, and cuts its way through spectacular gorges, eventually into the Noghay steppe to a complex delta on the western shore of the Caspian Sed. Even the lower course through the plains is too swift for navigation to be possible on it, but much water is now drawn off for irrigation purposes. During the golden period of Arabic geographical knowledge (4th/10th century), the land of Terek m…

K̲h̲oḳand

(2,795 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, Arabic orthography, K̲h̲wāḳand, later written K̲h̲uḳand (which is given a popular etymology, k̲h̲ūḳ + kand = town of the boar), a town in Farg̲h̲āna [ q.v.], where see also for the other spellings and the foundation of an independent Özbeg kingdom with K̲h̲oḳand as capital in the 12th/18th century. The accession of the first ruler of this Miñ dynasty, S̲h̲āhruk̲h̲, was followed by the building of a citadel; another citadel later called Eski Urda was built by his son, ʿAbd al-Karīm (d. 1746). ʿAbd al-Karīm and his nephe…

Mā Warāʾ al-Nahr

(8,348 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
(a.) “the land which lies beyond the river”, i.e. beyond the Oxus or Āmū-Daryā [ q.v.], the classical Transoxiana or Transoxania, so-called by the conquering Arabs of the 1st/7th century and after in contrast to Mā dūn al-Nahr, the lands of K̲h̲urāsān [ q.v.] this side of the Oxus, although the term K̲h̲urāsān was not infrequently used vaguely to designate all the eastern Islamic lands beyond western Persia. 1. The name The frontiers of Ma warāʾ al-nahr on the north and east were where the power of Islam ceased and depended on political conditions; cf. the statemen…

Dāg̲h̲istān

(4,740 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bennigsen, A.
“land of the mountains”; this name is an unusual linguistic phenomenon, since it consists of the Turkish word dāg̲h̲ , mountain, and of the suffix which, in the Persian language, distinguishes the names of countries; this name seems to have appeared for the first time in the 10th/16th century). An autonomous Republic of the R.S.F.S.R. with an area of 19,500 sq. miles and a population of 958,000 inhabitants (1956), it is made up of two quite distinct parts: the Caucasian Range and the cis-Casp…

Hūlāgū

(721 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
( Hülegü or rather Hüleʾü , the intervocalic g being purely graphie), the Mongol conqueror and founder of the dynasty of the II-K̲h̲āns [ q.v.] of Persia, born ca. 1217, was the grandson of Čingiz-K̲h̲ān [ q.v.] by the latter’s youngest son Toluy [ q.v.]. Sent by his brother the Great K̲h̲ān Möngke at the head of an army against the Ismāʿīlīs and the Caliph, he left Mongolia in the autumn of 1253, proceeding at a leisurely pace along a carefully prepared route, the roads having been specially cleared and levelled and bridges built across …

Ṭuk̲h̲āristān

(1,725 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, the name found in earlier mediaeval Islamic sources for the region along the southern banks of the middle and upper Oxus river, in the wider sense of the term (see below), with the ancient of the Balk̲h̲ as the centre of its western part and such towns as Ṭālaḳān, Andarāb and Walwālīd̲j̲ [ q.vv.] as its centres in the narrower acceptation of the term, sc. the eastern part. It comprised in its wider sense the modern Afg̲h̲an provinces of Fāryāb, D̲j̲ūzd̲j̲ān, Balk̲h̲, Sanangān, Ḳunduz, Tak̲h̲ār and Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān. The name of the region obviously preserves a memory of the people k…

G̲h̲āzān

(696 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, Maḥmūd , Ilk̲h̲an [ q.v.] from 694/1295 until 713/1304, was born on 20 Rabiʿ I 670/5 November 1271, being the eldest son of Arg̲h̲ūn [ q.v.], then only in his thirteenth year. Upon his father’s accession G̲h̲āzān was appointed governor of Ḵh̲urāsān, Māzandarān and Ray, which provinces he continued to administer during the reign of Gayk̲h̲ātū [ q.v.]. He had been brought up as a Buddhist and, whilst governor, had ordered the construction of Buddhist temples in Ḵh̲abūshān (Ḳūčān); but shortly before his accession, during the war with Bāydū [ q.v.], he had been persuaded by his general…

Mazār-i S̲h̲arīf

(626 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, a town in northern Afg̲h̲ānistān, situated in lat. 36° 42′ N. and long. 67° 06′ E., at an altitude of 1,235 feet/380 m. in the foothills of the northern outliers of the Hindū-Kus̲h̲ [ q.v.]. The great classical and mediaeval Islamic town of Balk̲h̲ [ q.v.], modern Wazīrābād, lay some 14 miles/20 km. to the west of Mazār-i S̲h̲arīf, and until the Tīmūrid period was the most important urban centre of the region. Previously to that time, the later Mazār-i S̲h̲arīf was marked by the village of Ḵh̲ayr, later called Ḵh̲ōd̲j̲a Ḵh̲ayrān. On two d…

Bāysong̲h̲or

(38 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, the name of another prince, of the Aḳ-Ḳoyunlū dynasty in Persia, son and successor of Sulṭān Yaʿḳūb; he only reigned for a short period from 896-7/1490-2 and was overthrown by his cousin Rustam. (W. Barthold)

Kās̲h̲g̲h̲ar

(1,013 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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…

Alān

(624 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Minorsky, V.
(in Arabic usually taken as al-lān ), an Iranian people (Alān < Aryan) of Northern Caucasus, formerly attested also east of the Caspian sea (see al-Bīrūnī, Taḥdīd al-Amākin , ed. A. Z. Validi, in Bīrūnī’s Picture of the world, 57), as supported by local toponymy. The Alān are mentioned in history from the 1st century A.D. In 371 they were defeated by the Huns. Together with the Vandals, a part of the Alāns migrated to the West across France and Spain, and finally took part in the creation of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa (418-5…

K̲h̲azar

(10,496 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Golden, P.B.
, a nomadic people in the South Russian steppes who flourished in the early Islamic period. The K̲h̲azar tribal union emerged in the course of the 6th century A.D. in the aftermath of a series of migrations of nomadic peoples from Inner and Central Asia. With the collapse of the European Hun state in 454 A.D., some of the nomadic elements of Attila’s horde withdrew to the Pontic steppe zone. They were joined here, ca. 463 A.D., by waves of Og̲h̲ur tribes which had been driven from Western Siberia and the Kazak̲h̲ steppe by the Sabirs who, in turn, had been forced to m…

Almali̊g̲h̲

(697 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B. | Pritsak, O.
, 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…

Si̊r Daryā

(2,001 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E. | Poujol, C.
, conventional form Syr Darya, a river of Central Asia and the largest in that region. The Turkish element in the name, si̊r , is not actually found before the 10th/16th century; in the following century, the K̲h̲īwan ruler and historian Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī Bahādur K̲h̲ān [ q.v.] calls the Aral Sea “the Sea of Sir” (Si̊r Teñizi). 1. In the early and mediaeval periods. The Si̊r Daryā flows through the present republics of Kirgizia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan down from the northwestern slopes of the Tien Shan Mountains to the Aral Sea [ q.v.]. It is formed by the confluence in the e…

ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ Kamāl al-Dīn b. D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn Isḥāḳ al-Samarḳandī

(738 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | S̲h̲afīʿ, Muḥammad
, Persian historian, author of the well-known Maṭlaʿ-i Saʿdayn wa-Mad̲j̲maʿ-i Baḥrayn , born in Harāt S̲h̲aʿbān 816/Nov. 1413, died there Ḏj̲umādā II 887/July-August 1482. His father was imām and ḳāḍī of the camp ( ḥaḍrat ) of S̲h̲āhruk̲h̲ and read out books and expounded various problems ( masāʾil ) to him ( Maṭlaʿ , ii, 704, 870, cf. 706). He received the usual type of education, and one of his teachers was his elder brother ʿAbd al-Ḳahhār. He also attended when his father read the two Ṣaḥīḥs to S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥ. al-Ḏj̲azarī (d. 833/1429) (ibid., ii, 631-1294) and received an id̲j̲āza

Ḥaydar b. ʿAlī

(211 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
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 …

Būs̲h̲and̲j̲

(506 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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…

Turkistān

(3,023 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E. | Poujol, Catherine
, Turkestan , a Persian term meaning “land of the Turks”. 1. As a designation for the Central Asian lands to the north of modern Persia and Afg̲h̲ānistān. This roughly corresponded to the older Transoxania or Mā warāʾ al-nahr [ q.v.] and the steppe lands to its north, although these last were from Mongol times onwards (sc. the 13th century) often distinguished as Mog̲h̲olistān [ q.v.]. To the Persians, of course, only the southern frontier of the land of the Turks, the frontier against Īrān, was of importance and this frontier naturally depended on political conditions. On ¶ their very firs…

Tubbat

(4,701 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E. | Gaborieau, M.
, Tibbat , Tibat , the most frequent vocalisations in the medieval Islamic sources for the consonant ductus T.b.t denoting the Inner Asian land of Tibet (with Tubbat , e.g. in Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, ii, 10, also preferred by Minorsky in his Ḥudūd al-ʿālam , tr. 92-3, and his edition and tr. of Marwazī, see below). The origin of the name has recently been examined by L. Bazin and J. Hamilton in a very detailed and erudite study, L’origine du nom Tibet , in Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde , xxvi [1991], 244-62, repr. in Bazin, Les Turcs , des mots, des hommes, Paris 1994. They…

Ḳubilay

(362 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, Mongol Great K̲h̲ān (1260-94), the brother and successor of Möngke [ q.v.], was born in 1215. In 1251 Möngke entrusted him with the administration of Northern China, and he took part in the subsequent war which his brother launched against the Sung rulers of the South. The conquest of the Sung was finally completed only during his own reign (1279), when the whole of China was again united under one ruler for the first time since the tenth century. Already in 1260 he had transferred the capital of the Empire from Ḳaraḳorum [ q.v.] to Peking, in Mongol K̲h̲ān-Bali̊g̲h̲ [ q.v.], i.e. “K̲h̲ān’s T…

Čag̲h̲atay K̲h̲ān

(875 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, founder of the Čag̲h̲atay Ḵh̲anate [ q.v.], the second son of Čingiz-Ḵh̲ān and his chief wife Börte Fud̲j̲in. Already in his father’s lifetime he was regarded as the greatest authority on the Yasa (the tribal laws of the Mongols as codified by Čingiz-Ḵh̲ān). Like his brothers he took part in his father’s campaigns against China (1211-1216) and against the kingdom of the Ḵh̲wārizm-S̲h̲āh (1219-1224). Urgānd̲j̲, the latter’s capital, was besieged by the three princes Ḏj̲oči, Čag̲h̲atay and Ögedey and taken in Ṣafar 618/27th March-24th April 1221. In the sam…

Ḳaraḳalpaḳ

(724 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Wixman, R.
(Turkic “black hat”), a Turkic people of Central Asia. In the Russian annals, a people of this name (Černiye Klobutsi) is mentioned as early as the 12th century A.D.; but whether these “black hats” are identical with the modern Ḳaraḳalpaḳ cannot be definitely ascertained. It is not until the end of the 11th/17th century that there are records of the Ḳaraḳalpaḳ, in Central Asia. According to the embassy report of Skibin and Tros̲h̲in (1694), they then lived on the Si̊r Daryā, 10 days’ journey bel…

Bāysong̲h̲or

(187 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, second son of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Samarḳand, grandson of Sulṭān Abū Saʿīd [ q.v.], born in the year 882/1477-8, killed on 10 Muḥarram 905/17 Aug. 1493. In the lifetime of his father he was prince of Buk̲h̲ārā; on the death of the latter in Rabīʿ II 900/30 Dec. 1494/27 Jan. 1495, he was summoned to Samarḳand. In 901/1495-6, he was deposed for a brief period by his brother Sulṭān ʿAlī and in 903, towards the end of Rabīʿ I November 1497, finally overthrown by his cousin Bābur. Bāysong̲h̲or then betook himself to…

Alti S̲h̲ahr

(142 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

Gand̲j̲a

(976 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
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…

Balāsāg̲h̲ūn

(642 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
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 …

Kars

(2,488 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Heywood, C.J.
, 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…

Bāmiyān

(1,258 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Allchin, F.R.
, 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…

Fārāb

(503 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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…

Mangū-Tīmūr

(910 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bregel, Yu.
(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…

Atek

(162 words)

Author(s): Barthold, 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…

Āk̲h̲āl Tekke

(283 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
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 Takīn

(443 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Cahen, Cl.
(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. …

Bayram ʿAlī K̲hān

(128 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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…

Dūg̲h̲lāt

(1,041 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, 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 …

Kučum K̲h̲ān

(538 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, 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…

al-Barāmika

(3,746 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Sourdel, D.
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…

Turgay

(472 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, 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 …

Baydu

(287 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Boyle, J.A.
, 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…

K̲h̲ānbaliḳ̊ḳ

(514 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
(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…

Abk̲h̲āz

(1,661 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Minorsky, V.
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

Burṭās

(735 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Quelquejay, Ch.
, 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…

Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ḳum

(373 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
(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 …

Aḳ Masd̲j̲id

(178 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
“White Mosque”, name of two towns: 1. Town in the Crimea (local pronunciation: Aḳ Mečet), founded in the 16th. century by the k̲h̲āns of the Crimea in order to protect their capital, Bāg̲h̲če Sarāy, from nomad incursions. It was the residence of the crown prince ( kalg̲h̲ay sulṭān ), whose palace was outside the town, according to Ewliyā Čelebi, vii, 638-41. The town was destroyed by the Russians in 1736, and rebuilt in 1784 under the name of Simferopol (although the local population continued to use the Turkish name). 2. A fortress on the Si̊r Daryā, which belonged to the Ḵh̲ānate …

Čelebī

(528 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
There has been no satisfactory explanation of the origin of the word. The following have been suggested: 1) as late as the 7th/13th (!) century, borrowed by the Nestorian Mission from the Syrian ṣělībhā ‘cross’, which was subsequently taken to mean a worshipper of the crucifix (Aḥmed Wefīk Pas̲h̲a, Lehd̲j̲e , loc. cit.); the same, thoug̲h taken over considerably earlier: Viktor, Baron Rosen in Zapiski Vost. Otd. v, 305 ff.; xi, 310 ff.; with additional source references also found in P. Melioranskiy, Zapiski Vost. Otd. xv, 1904, 036 ff.; cf. also Menges, as in the bibliography;…

S̲h̲īrwān

(1,300 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, S̲h̲irwān or S̲h̲arwān , a region of eastern Caucasia, known by this name in both mediaeval Islamic and modern times. S̲h̲īrwān proper comprised the easternmost spurs of the Caucasus range and the lands which sloped down from these mountains to the banks of the Kur river [ q.v.]. But its rulers strove continuously to control also the western shores of the Caspian Sea from Ḳuba (the modern town of Kuba) in the district of Maskat (< *Maskut, Mas̲h̲kut, to be connected with the ancient Eurasian steppe people of the Massagetes) in the north, to Bākū [ q.v.] (modern Baku) in the south. To the …

I̊ssi̊k-Kul

(1,678 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
(Turkish “warm lake”), the most important mountain lake in Turkistan and one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world, situated in between 42° 11′ and 42° 59′ N. Lat. and between 76° 15′ and 78° 30′ warm sea; the lake never freeze E. Long., 1605 m. (5,116 feet) above sea level; the length of the lake is about 115 miles, the breadth up to 37 miles, the depth up …

Afs̲h̲īn

(440 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Gibb, H.A.R.
pre-Islamic title borne by the native princes of Us̲h̲rūsana. the mountainous district between Samarḳand and Ḵh̲ud̲j̲anda, including the upper course of the Zarafs̲h̲ān river (Barthold, Turkestan 2, 165-9). The province was subjected to the Arab governors of Ḵh̲urāsān by an expedition commanded by al-Faḍl b. Yaḥyā al-Barmakī in 178/794-5, but it was only after an internal conflict and a second expedition under Aḥmad b. Abī Ḵh̲ālid in 207/822 that the ruling afs̲h̲īn Kāwūs accepted Islām. Kāwūs was succeeded by his son Ḵh̲…

Farg̲h̲ānā

(2,974 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, Ferg̲h̲ānā, a valley on the middle Jaxartes (Si̊r-Daryā), approximately 300 km. long and 70 km. wide, surrounded by parts of the Tians̲h̲an mountains: the Čatkal range (Ar. Ḏj̲adg̲h̲al. up to 3,000 m. high) on the north, the Ferg̲h̲ānā mountains (up to 4,000 m.) on the east, and the Alai mountains (up to 6,000 m.) on the south. The only approach (7 km. wide) accessible in all seasons is in the west, at the point where the Jaxartes leaves the valley and where the trade-route (and since 1899 the railway from Samarḳand to Ōs̲h̲) enters it. The Farg̲h̲ānā valley covers approximately 23,000 km.2; t…

Buk̲h̲ārā

(3,484 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Frye, R.N.
, a city in a large oasis in present day Uzbekistān on the lower course of the Zarafs̲h̲ān River. The city is 722 ft. (222.4 m.) above sea level and is located at 64° 38′ E. long. (Greenw.) and 39° 43′ N. Lat. We have few references to the city in pre-Islamic times. In the time of Alexander the Great there was ariother town in Sogdiana besides Marakanda (Samarḳand) on the lower course of the river but it probably did not correspond to the modern city of Buk̲h̲ārā. The oasis was inhabited from early times and towns certainly existed there. The earliest literary occurrence of the name is in Chin…

Ḳaraḳum

(252 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
(Turkish “black sand”), a desert in Russian Turkestan, between the Amū Daryā, the Üst Yurt and the ranges of hills on the Caspian, contrasted with Ḳi̊zi̊l-Ḳum (“red sand”), the desert between the Si̊r Daryā and the Āmū Daryā. The Ḳaraḳum (area ca. 300,000 sq. km.) is a still more dreary waste and possesses even fewer fertile areas than the Ḳi̊zi̊l-ḳum. The sandy stretches north of the Sir as far as Lake Čalkar are called “little Ḳarāḳum”; cf. F. Machatschek, Landeskunde von Russisch-Turkestan , Stuttgart 1921, 15 f., 285, and index. A good deal of the Ḳa…

Atrek

(309 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, a river in the north of Ḵh̲urāsān, which has its source on the mountain of Hazār ¶ Masd̲j̲id on the Gulistān ridge of the Kopet Dag̲h̲, 37° 10′ N, ca. 59° E, NE of Kočan (Kūčān), 3,975 ft. above sea level. The Atrek has a course of some 320 miles (Mustawfī: 120 farsak̲h̲s ), running mainly westwards and runs, being some 32 ft. wide, 2-3 ft. deep, into the bay of Ḥasan Ḳulī in the SE of the Caspian Sea. On its upper reaches lie the fertile districts of Kočan and Bud̲j̲nurd (in the Middle Ages Ustuwā), which are inhabited by K…

Gökče-Tengiz

(266 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Lang, D.M.
, Gökče-göl or Gökče-deniz ; otherwise Sevan, from Armenian Sew-vank , ‘Black monastery’; a great lake in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, approx. 40° 20° N and 45′ 30′ E. Triangular in shape, Lake Gökče lies 6,000 feet/1830 metres above sea level and is surrounded by barren mountains; its area was formerly reckoned at 540 sq. miles and maximum depth 67 fathoms, but the level of the lake is being systematically …

Bāyḳarā

(363 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, a prince of the house of Tīmūr, grandson of its founder. He was 12 years old at the death of his grandfather (S̲h̲aʿbān 807/February 1405) so he must have been born about 795/1392-3. His father ʿUmar S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ had predeceased Tīmūr. Bāyḳarā is celebrated by Dawlat-S̲h̲āh (ed. Browne, 374) for his beauty as a second Joseph and for his courage as a second Rustam; he was prince of Balk̲h̲ for a long period. In the year 817/1414 he was granted Luristān, Hamadān, Nihāwand and Burūd̲j̲īrd by S̲h̲āh…

Banākitī

(421 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Massé, H.
, (for the vocalisation, see the preceding article), fak̲h̲r al-dīn abū sulaymān dāwūd b. abiʾl-faḍl muḥammad , Persian poet and historian (d. 730/1329-30). According to his own account, he was made malik al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ , or “king of poets”, in 701/1301-2 by the Mongol ruler of Persia, G̲h̲āzān Ḵh̲ān. Dawlats̲h̲āh ( Tad̲h̲kira , ed. Browne, 227) records one of his poems. His historical work, entitled Rawḍat ūli ’l-Albāb fī Tawārīk̲h̲ al-Akābir wa ’l-Ansāb , was written in 717/1317-8, under the Īlk̲h̲ān Abū Saʿīd; the preface is dated 25 S̲h̲awwā…

ʿAmr b. al-Layt̲h̲

(429 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W.
, Persian general, brother and successor of Yaʿḳūb b. al-Layt̲h̲ [ q.v.[, the founder of the Ṣaffārid [ q.v.] dynasty in Sid̲j̲istān. Said to have been a mule-driver in his youth, and later on a mason, he was associated with his brother’s campaigns and in 259/873 captured for Yaʿḳūb the Ṭāhirid capital Naysābūr. After Yaʿḳūb’s defeat at Dayr al-ʿĀkūl and subsequent death (S̲h̲awwāl 265/ June 879), ʿAmr was elected by the army as his successor. He made his submission to the caliph, and was invested with the provin…

K̲h̲īwa

(925 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Brill, M.L.
, on the western bank of the Amu Daryā, site of the last capital of the k̲h̲ānate of K̲h̲wārazm, subsequently called the k̲h̲ānate of K̲h̲īwa. Its origins are bound up in the history of K̲h̲wārazm [ q.v.]. K̲h̲īwa was the third capital, after Gurgānd̲j̲ (385-515/995-1221) and Kāt̲h̲ [ q.vv.]; the latter was the capital during the 8th/14th century, in which period, with K̲h̲īwa. it was governed by the Čag̲h̲atay, and Gurgānd̲j̲ (subsequently called Urgenč) by the Golden Horde. After the restoration of unity (under the rule of the S̲h̲aybanids)…

al-Ṣug̲h̲d

(1,173 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Bosworth, C.E.
or al-Ṣug̲h̲d, the name in early Islamic geographical and historical sources for the Soghdia of classical Greek authors, a region of Central Asia lying beyond the Oxus and extending across the modern Republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirghizia in its wider acceptation. The same name (Old. Pers. Sugudu, late Avestan Sug̲h̲da, Greek Sogdioi or Sogdianoi (the people) and Sogdianē (the country) was applied in ancient times to a people of Iranian origin subject to the Persians (at least from the time of Darius I, 522-486 B.C.) whose lands stretched from the Oxus [see āmū daryā …

Čopan-Ata

(298 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
(Turkish "Father-Shepherd"), the name of a row of hills ½ mile long on the southern bank of the Zarafs̲h̲ān [ q.v.], close by the city walls of Samarḳand [ q.v.]. There is no written evidence for this name before the 19th century; up to the 18th century, it was referred to in written sources (Persian) as Kūhak (‘little mountain’), and the Zarafs̲h̲ān (only known as such in the written language since the 18th century) also sometimes carried this name. Under the name of Kūhak, the range is mentioned in Iṣṭak̲h̲ri ( BGA I, 318), and it contained quarries and clay pits for Samarkand. There is an aeti…

Atsi̊̊z b. Muḥammad b. Anūs̲h̲tigin

(634 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Spuler, B.
, Ḵh̲wārizms̲h̲āh [ q.v.] from 521-2/1127-8 to 551/1156, b. around 1098, followed his father as vassal of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultan Sand̲j̲ar in 521/1127 or 522/1128. All through his life it was his desire to make himself independent of this ruler, to maintain his position also with respect to the newly founded might of the Ḳara Ḵh̲iṭāy and to bring under his domain the districts in the north which in earlier centuries had been temporarily connected with the Ḵh̲w ārizm state in order thus to achieve an expansion of it. In effect he was able (according to …

Ḳarapapak̲h̲

(276 words)

Author(s): Barthold, W. | Wixman, R.
(Turkish, “black hat”), a Turkic people whose language belongs to the western Og̲h̲uz division, and differs little from Āzerī and the Turkish of Turkey. In the Georgian S.S.R. it is often confused with Āzerī, and in Turkey itself Ḳarapapak̲h̲ is no longer spoken (having been replaced by Turkish). In 1828, the Ḳarapapak̲h̲ emigrated from the region along the Debeda or Borčala river in eastern Georgia partly to the region of Ḳars (where they formed about 15% of the population) and partly to the Su…
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