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, Ṭārom , the name of two places in Persia. 1. The best-known is the mediaeval Islamic district of that name lying along the middle course of the Ḳi̊zi̊l Üzen or Safīd Rūd river [ q.vv.] in the ancient region of Daylam [ q.v.] in northwestern Persia. Adjoining it on the east was the district of K̲h̲alk̲h̲āl [ q.v.]. There are, at the present time, two small towns or villages bearing the name Ṭārum, one of them on the right bank of the Ḳi̊zi̊l Üzen between Wanisarā and Kallad̲j̲. According to Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī ( Nizhat al-ḳulūb , 65, 217-18, tr. 69-70, 209-10), the district of “the two Ṭārums” ( Ṭāruma…

, 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 …

, ancient Armenian capital, whose ruins lie on the right bank of the Arpa-Čay (called by the Armenians Ak̲h̲uryan) at about 20 miles from the point where that river joins the Araxes. A suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Iranian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaďtis). The site was inhabited in the pre-Christian period, for pagan tombs have been found in the immediate vicinity of the town. As a fortress Ānī is mentioned as early as the 5th century A.D. Its foun…

(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…

, modern Turkish form Manisa, classical Magnesia, a town of western Anatolia, in the ancient province of Lydia, lying to the south of the Gediz river on the northeastern slopes of the Manisa Daği, which separates it from Izmir or Smyrna (lat. 38° 36′ N., long 27° 27′ E.). In Greek and then Roman times, Magnesia ad Sipylum was a flourishing town, noted amongst other things for the victory won in its vicinity by the two Scipios over Antiochus the Great of Syria in 190 B.C., and continued to flourish under the Byzantines (see Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie , xxvii, 472-…

, 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…

, one of the names for gipsies in Persia; parallel forms are: in Persian, lūrī , lōrī ( Farhang-i D̲j̲ahāngīrī ); in Balūčī, lōṛī (Denys Bray, Census of Baluchistan , 1911, iv, 143, gives the popular etymology from lōṛ = “lot, share”). The name lūlī is first found in a legend relating to the reign of Bahrām Gūr (420-38 A.D.). At the request of this Sāsānid King, who wished to amuse his subjects, the Indian king S̲h̲angal (?) sent to Persia 4,000 (12,000) Indian musicians. Ḥamza (350/961), ed. Berlin-Kaviani, 38, calls them al-Zuṭṭ [ q.v.], Firdawsī (Mohl, vi, 76-7), Lūriyān; T̲h̲aʿālibī, G̲h̲ur…

, a town and district in southern Kurdistān, since the Ottoman reconquest of ʿIrāḳ from the Ṣafawids in the 11th/17th ¶ century under nominal Ottoman suzerainty, and since the aftermath of the First World War in the kingdom and then republic of ʿIrāḳ. The town lies in lat. 35° 32′ E. and long. 45° 27′ N. at an altitude of 838 m/2,750 feet, and is 90 km/54 miles east of Kirkūk [ q.v.], to which it is connected by road. The historical region of Sulaymāniyya lies between what is now the ʿIrāḳ-Persia frontier, the Diyāla [ q.v.] and its upper affluents the Tand̲j̲aru and Sīrwān, the region of …

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…

, Banū , a numerous and formerly powerful Arab tribe living on the borders of Iran and ʿIrāḳ, principally on the plain between the foothills of the Pus̲h̲t-i Kūh mountains and the river Tigris. The easterly limit of the main tribal territory follows the course of the Rūd-i Kark̲h̲a southwards from Pā-yi Pul to the area north of Ḥawīza where the river peters out into salt flats. The course of the Tigris between S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Saʿd and ʿAmāra forms the westerly limit of that territ…

(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…

, Nisā , the name of several places in Persia. Yāḳūt enumerates Nasās in K̲h̲urāsān. Fārs, Kirmān and the district of Hamad̲h̲ān in D̲j̲ibāl, but W. Eilers has assembled a much larger number of Persian place names containing the element nasā ( r) or containing linguistic elements apparently connected with it. Scholars like Bartholomae and Marquart sought an etymology in Old Iranian śai- “to lie” (Grk. Κεῖσθαι), with the ideas of “settlement” or “low-lying place”; Eilers however explains it as from NP nasā, nasa ( r), nisā , “place lying in the shade (e.g. of a mountain)” ( Iranische Ortsname…

, 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…

, the ancient Rag̲h̲ā, a city in the old Persian region of Media, during Islamic times in the province of D̲j̲ibāl [ q.v.]. Its ruins may be seen about 5 miles south-southeast of Tehran [ q.v.] to the south of a spur projecting from Elburz into the plain. The village and sanctuary of S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm lie immediately south of the ruins. The geographical importance of the town lies in the fact that it was situated in the fertile zone which lies between the mountains and the desert, by which from time immemorial communication ha…

, “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…

, a town in the northeast of Diyār Bakr [ q.v.]. The other Islamic forms of the name are Māfārḳīn, Mafārḳīn, Fārḳīn (whence the name of origin al-Fāriḳī), etc. The town is called in Greek Martyropolis, in Syriac Mīpherḳēt, in Armenian Nphkert (later Muharkin, Muphargin). According to Yāḳūt, iv, 702, the old name of the town was Madūr-ṣālā (read ḳāla < * matur-khalakh in Armenian, "town of the martyrs"). On the identification of Tigranocerta with Mayyāfariḳīn, see below. 1. Topography and early history. Geography. The town lies to the south of the little r…

, a district in K̲h̲urāsān, original Persian form Tōs (also thus in the later 8th century Armenian geography, see Markwart-Messina, A catalogue of the provincial capitals of Ērānshahr , Rome 1931, 11, 47), which played a notable part in the medieval Islamic period of Persia’s Islamic history. ¶ 1. History. In early Islamic times, Ṭūs was the name of a district containing several towns. The town of Nawḳān flourished down to the end of the 3rd/9th century. The form Nawḳān < Nōḳan is confirmed by the present name of the Mas̲h̲had quarter Nawg̲h̲ān (where the diphthong aw corresponds to the old wāw…

b. ʿAlī b. Ḳara yoluk ʿUt̲h̲mān , Abū Naṣr, born in 828/1425, died in 882/1478, and together with his grandfather, one of the most celebrated rulers of the line of Aḳ Ḳoyunlu Turkmens [ q.v.] and a statesman and military commander of genius. Expanding from his family’s base in Diyār Bakr [ q.v.], Uzun (“the Tall”) overcame his Ḳara Ḳoyunlu [ q.v] Turkmen rivals, and in the east defeated his rivals for control of Persia, the Tīmūrids [ q.v.], reigning 861-82/1457-78 over a powerful and extensive state which comprised western Persia and Kirmān as far as the borders of K̲h̲u…

(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 …

, a people of South Caucasian stock (Iberic, “Georgian”) now dwelling in the southeastern corner of the shores of the Black Sea, in the region called in Ottoman times Lazistān. 1. History and geography. The ancient history of the Laz is complicated by the uncertainty which reigns in the ethnical nomenclature of the Caucasus generally; the same names in the course of centuries are applied to different units (or groups). The fact that the name Phasis was applied to the Rion, to the Čorok̲h̲ (the ancient Akampsis), and even to the sources of the Araxes, also creates difficulties. The earliest G…

, S̲h̲ahrizūr (in S̲h̲araf K̲h̲ān Bidlīsī’s S̲h̲araf-nāma , S̲h̲ahra-zūl), a district in western Kurdistān lying to the west of the Awrāmān mountain chain, essentially a fertile plain some 58 × 40 km/36 × 25 miles in area, watered by the tributaries of the Tānd̲j̲arō river, which flows into the Sīrwān and eventually to the Diyālā and Tigris. In the wide sense, S̲h̲ahrazūr denoted in Ottoman times the eyālet or province of Kirkūk, a source of considerable confusion in geographical terminology. The district is closely associated with the Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ [ q.v.], and the initiates of the sec…

, the second king of the Pīs̲h̲dādī dynasty in the Persian epic cycle. The name Tak̲h̲mō-urupa ( Avesta), Tak̲h̲mōrup ( Bundahis̲h̲) is compounded of tak̲h̲ma (“strong, courageous”) (cf. Rustam < Rustahm) + urupa (or urupi) (cf. Christensen, p. 140), “a certain animal of the dog family”, cf. Bartholomae, Altir. Wört., p. 1532, who, however, expresses doubts as to the real meaning of the name (Darmesteter, Avesta, ii., p. 583, interprets it “of sturdy shape”; cf. ¶ Sanskrit rūpa?). Later forms are Tak̲h̲mūraf, Tahmūras. The transcription into Arabic characters Ṭahmūrat̲h̲…

, Mag̲h̲nisa (> Māʾnisa), in Arabic Mag̲h̲nīsiya, capital of the district of Ṣārūk̲h̲ān in western Anatolia. Mag̲h̲nisa is two hours’ journey distant on the south from the river Gediz or Gedüs (the ancient Hermon; on its course, cf. Tchihatchef, Asie Mineure, ii. [1860], p. 232) on the northern slope of Mount Mag̲h̲nisa-dag̲h̲i̊ or Yamanlar (the ancient Sipylos) which separates it from Smyrna (the distance between the two towns by the Sabunči-beli pass is only 20 miles; by railway 40 miles). In ancient times the town (“Magnesia ad Sipylum”) was mainly noted for the victory …

, a province to the south of the Caspian Sea bounded on the west by Gīlān, on the east by the province of Āstarābād (q. v., formerly Gurgān). The name. If Gurgān to the Īrānians was the “Land of the Wolves” ( vəhrkāna), the region to its west was peopled by “Māzainian dēws” (Bartholomae, Altir. Wörterbuch, col. 1169 under māzainya daēva). Darmesteter, Le Zend-Avesta, ii. 373, note 32, thought that Māzandarān was a “comparative of direction” ( *Mazana-tara; cf. s̲h̲ūs̲h̲ and S̲h̲ûs̲h̲tar) but Nöldeke’s hypothesis is the more probable ( Grundr. d. iron. Phil., ii. 178) who thinks that Māz…

(Suldūs). 1. A tribe in Mongolia. According to Bérézine the Mongol form of the name would be Suldes (plural of sulda, “good fortune”). L. Ligeti ( Die Herkunft des Volksnamens Kirgis, Körösi-Csoma Archiv, Budapest 1925, i.) sees in the ending of Suld-uz, as in that of Ḳi̊rḳ-i̊z the remains of an ancient Turkish plural suffix (cf. biz, “we”, siz, “you”, etc.) and as a hypothetical singular quotes the name of a Ḳi̊rg̲h̲i̊z clan: Sult, Sultu. Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn classes the Suldūz among the dürlükin Mongols, i. e. of “common” origin, in contrast to the “pure” ( nīrūn), who however were descended…

, a dynasty of Atābegs which flourished in Eastern and Southern Luristān between 550 (1155) and 827 (1423) the capital of which was Īd̲h̲ad̲j̲ (= Mālamīr; q. v.). The eponymous founder of the dynasty, also known as Faḍlawī, was a Kurd chief of Syria named Faḍlōya. His descendants (the Ḏj̲ihān-ārā mentions 9 predecessors of Abū Ṭāhir) migrated from Syria and passing through Maiyafāriḳīn and Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān (where they made an alliance with the Amīra Dībād̲j̲ [?] of Gīlān) they arrived about 500 (1006) in the plains north of Us̲h̲turān-Kūh (Luristān). Their (1) chief Abū Ṭāhir (b. ʿA…

, the old capital of Ad̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. Position. The town lies 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 (Ḥamd Allāh and Mecquenem, 1904). The plentiful water supply makes the vegetation rich. The fruit…

, according to Yāḳūt, a village 2 farsak̲h̲s from Marw al-S̲h̲āhid̲j̲ān [q.v.] In 130 the Umaiyad wālī Naṣr b. Saiyār, retiring under pressure from Abū Muslim, encamped on the river Nahr ʿIyāḍ and appointed Abu ’l-Dhaiyāl to Ṭūsān, the inhabitants of which were partisans of Abū Muslim. Abū ’l-Ḏh̲aiyāl was defeated at Ṭūsān (cf. Ibn al-At̲h̲īr, v. 282). (V. Minorsky)

(in Persian Lor with o short), an Īrānian people living in the mountains in S.W. Persia. As in the case of the Kurds, the principal link among the four branches of the Lurs (Mamāsani, Kūhgīlūʾī, Bak̲h̲tiyārī and Lurs proper) is that of language. The special character of the Lur dialects suggests that the country was iranicised from Persia and not from Media. On the ancient peoples, who have disappeared, become iranicised or absorbed in different parts of Luristan, cf. the latter article. The name. Local tradition ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Guzīda) connects the name of the Lurs with the place Lu…

(written Māridīn in Arabic, in Syriac Marde), a town in upper Mesopotamia (Diyār Rabīʿa). Position. In Upper Mesopotamia, the watershed between the Tigris and Euphrates is formed by the heights which culminate in Ḳarad̲j̲a-dag̲h̲, (5,000 feet) S.W. of Diyār-bakr. This basalt massif is continued eastwards in the direction of Ḏj̲azīrat Ibn ʿOmar by the limestone chain known in ancient times as Masius and later as Izala (’ΙζαλαΣ). The eastern part of this ridge forms the district of Ḏj̲abal-Ṭūr or Tūr ʿAbdīn [q.…

, pseudonym of the Persian poet Abu ’l-Ḥasan Raḥīm b. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ibrāhīm Ḳulī. He was born about 1196 (1782) in the village of Ḵh̲ūr in the oasis of Ḏj̲andaḳ or Biyābānak in the middle of the central desert of Persia. He began his life as a camel-herd but by the age of 7 his natural gifts had been noticed by the owner of the oasis, Ismāʿīl Ḵh̲ān ʿArab-i ʿĀmirī whose secretary ( muns̲h̲ī-bās̲h̲ī) he ultimately became. His first nom de plume was Mad̲j̲nūn. In 1216 (1802) Ismāʿīl Ḵh̲ān after a rising against the government had to flee to Ḵh̲urāsān, while Ḏj̲andaḳ was …

, an Iranian term applied to the country to the north-east of Iran. The form of the name is not earlier than the Middle Persian period. The suffix - ān is used to form both patronymics (Pāpakān) and the names of countries (Gēlān, Dailamān) (cf. Grundr. d. iran. Phil., I/ii., p. 176; Salemann, ibid., I/i., p. 280 expresses doubts as to whether - ān is from the genitive plural - ānām). Three questions are raised by the name Tūrān: 1. its origin, 2. its later acceptation, which identifies Tūrān with “the land of the Turks”, 3. its modern geographical, linguistic and political applications. The Tūra.…

(better T-čayi̊), a village in the district of Gärmärūd in the province of Ād̲h̲arbāid̲j̲ān. Türkmän-čai, “the river of the Turkomans”, is really the name of the stream on which the village stands; it comes down from the Čičäkli pass (between Türkmän-čai and Sarāb). It is one of the northern tributaries of the river of Miyāna (S̲h̲ähär-čayi̊) which flows into the Ḳi̊zi̊lüzän (cf. the article safīd-rūd). The village of Türkmän-čai marks a stage on the great Tabrīz-Zand̲j̲ān-Ḳazwīn-Tihrān-Ḵh̲urāsān road. The distances are Tabrīz-Türkmän-čai c. 60 miles; Türkmä…

, 1. capital of the Persian province of ʿIrāḳ (popularly: ʿArāḳ). The town was founded in 1808 by Yūsuf Ḵh̲ān Gurd̲j̲ī in the S. W. corner of the plain of Farāhān. The town is built very regularly in the shape of a rectangle; its walls (2,000 × 2,666 feet) are each protected by 12 or 18 towers. The inhabitants number 25,000 (Stahl). The province now bearing the name of ʿIrāḳ (ʿArāḳ) must not be confused with the extensive area to which the geographers of the Mongol period gave the name of ʿIrāḳ ʿAd̲j̲amī (cf. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, p. 185—186) which included Kirmāns̲h̲ā…

, “men of God”, a secret religion found especially in Western Persia. If one wished to choose a name for the sect, Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ would seem to lack precision for it was in use, for example, among the Ḥurūfīs (cf. Huart, Textes persons relatifs à la secte des Ḥurūfī, in G.M.S., 1909, p. 40), and it resembles Ṣūfī terms like Ahl-i Ḥaḳīḳat (this is also used by the Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ). In the narrow sense however, Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ is the name actually given themselves by the followers of the religion described in the present article. The name ʿAlī-Ilāhī [q. v.] given them by…

(more frequently S. Sohāḳ, S. Sohāk), an important personage in the beliefs of the Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ sect (popularly known as ʿAlī llāhī; q. v.). The first manifestations of God (Ḵh̲āwandigār, ʿAlī, Bābā Ḵh̲os̲h̲īn) correspond to the stages of s̲h̲arīʿa, ṭarīḳa and maʿrifa, but it is the fourth avatar — Sulṭān Sohāk — which marks the highest degree of gnosis, the ḥaḳīḳa [q. v.]. Everything goes to show that Sulṭān Isḥāḳ was a historical personage. The Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ put him in the xivth century. He js said to have been a son of a certain S̲h̲aik̲h̲ ʿĪsā and Ḵh̲ātūn Dāyira (Dayarāḳ), da…

b. bazzāz (Tūklī [?] b. Ismāʿīl), a darwīs̲h̲, author of the Ṣifwat al-Ṣafā, which is a biography of the grand S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Ṣafī al-Dīn of Ardabīl (650—735= 1252—1334), ancestor of the Ṣafawid dynasty. The book was written in 750 (1350) under the direction of S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Ṣadr al-Dīn, son of Ṣafī al-Dīn, whom Tawakkul quotes as an authority. Later under S̲h̲āh Ṭahmāsp I the text of the work was revised by a certain Abu ’l-Fatḥ Ḥusainī. The Persian text was published in Calcutta in 1329 (1911). The Ṣifwat al-Ṣafā is a work of considerable length, about 216,000 words. It is purely hagi…

(Send̲j̲ābī), a Kurd tribe in the Persian province of Kirmāns̲h̲āh. In summer the Sind̲j̲ābī pitch their tents in the plain of Māhīdas̲h̲t and in the district of Ḏj̲wānrū; in winter they move to the lands south of the Alwand (in Kurdish: Halawān from the older Ḥulwān, cf. sarpul), a left bank tributary of the Diyāla which it joins near Ḵh̲āniḳīn. Here the ¶ pasturages of the Sind̲j̲ābī stretch from Sarpul to the mountains of Ag̲h̲-dāg̲h̲, Bāg̲h̲če and Ḳaṭār (south of Ḵh̲āniḳīn) and in the south stretch as far as Ḳala-naft. The delimitation of the Turco-Per…

, a Mongol Ḵh̲ān, whose dynasty ruled in Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ān for a century before 808 (1405). The Name. The Ḵh̲ān’s name may be read Tug̲h̲a or Tog̲h̲a. The Ẓafar-nāma transcribes it Ṭg̲h̲y (Tug̲h̲ai?); on a coin published by Fraehn it is spelled Tog̲h̲an (in Mongol character; cf. Howorth, op. cit., iii. 718). Family. Tug̲h̲a Tīmūr b. Suri (Surikuri?) b. Bābā Bahādur was a descendant in the sixth generation from a brother of Čingiz-Ḵh̲ān (Ḏj̲uči-Ḳasar, S̲h̲ad̲j̲arat, p. 315, misunderstood by Miles). In 705 (1305) Bābā Bahādur arrived in Ḵh̲orāsān with his tuman (10,000 families) and entered…