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, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. Zayd b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, S̲h̲īʿī ascetic and traditionist, well-known under the name of Imāmzāde (S̲h̲āh) ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm. He is buried in the principal sanctuary of Rayy [see al-rayy ]. 1. The holy man. Only sparse biographical data are available on ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm, who must have been born in Medina before 200/815 and who was a companion of the ninth and tenth Imāms, Muḥammad al-D̲j̲awād al-Taḳī (d. 220/835) and ʿAlī al-Hādī al-Naḳī (d. 254/868) [see al-ʿaskarī ]. When the latter, at the order of caliph al-Mutawakkil, was…

, a Persian toponym which, in various forms (Lār, Lād, Lād̲h̲, Lāz, Alār, etc.) ¶ denotes an important town of Fārs and its surrounding region (Lār and Lāristān), an island and an islet in the Persian Gulf, and various villages and a region of pastures in southern Persia (Lār and Larid̲j̲ān). 1. The town of Lār (lat. 27° 42′ N., long. 54° 20′ E.) is the chef-lieu of a s̲h̲ahristān (which has become a farmāndārī see Lāristān , below) of the province of Fārs ( ustān-i Fārs ). It is situated on one of the roads connecting S̲h̲īrāz [ q.v.] with the Persian Gulf ports and the Sea of ʿUmān (Daryā-y…

Broadly attested outside southern Iran, the toponym Lār is applied to a characteristic region of northern Iran known by the name of Lārīd̲j̲ān. Lār itself is the name of a watercourse, of its valley and of the pasture-lands ¶ which surround it. In different forms and local variants, it also refers to other sites or urban settlements of the Iranian lands. 1. The high valley of the Lār. On the barren slope of the Elburz, not far from the conurbation of Tehran, the valley of the Lār constitutes one of the high points of nomadism. Situated at the foot of Mt. Damāvan…

(p. Mihragān/Mehregān ; a. Mihrad̲j̲ān ; Meherangān among the Parsees), name of an Iranian Mazdaeanfestival dedicated to Mithra/Mihr, traditionally celebrated in Iran around the autumn equinox. Its origins, its place in the calendar, its duration, its rituals and the beliefs connected with it, its diffusion in other cultural areas and its survivals in the Islamic period present several problems which are the subject of discussions and controversies. It is also a word used in toponymy, patronymy and music (see below, iv). i. The name of the festival. It comes from the Pahlavi mihrakān/m…

(Ḳāsān, Ḳās̲h̲ān; 33°59′ lat. N., 51°27′ long. E.), a town of the D̲j̲ibāl, on the ancient N. — S. axial route of central Iran, chief town of a s̲h̲ahristān of the central province ( Ustān-i markazī ); it gives its name to an oasis adjoining the Das̲h̲t-i Kavīr on the N.E. and on the E., closed on the W. and on the S. by the buffer of the median chain of central Iran (3,900 m. at the Kūh-i Karkas). Despite its altitude (945 m.), the town has a warm climate (average of 38° C. in July, obs. 1881-4), has a bad r…

(pl. marād̲j̲iʿ-i taḳlid , Pers. for Ar. mard̲j̲aʿ/marād̲j̲iʿ al-taḳlīd ), title and function of a hierarchal nature denoting a Twelver Imām S̲h̲īʿī jurisconsult ( muad̲j̲tahid , faḳīh ) who is to be considered during his lifetime, by virtue of his qualities and his wisdom, a model for reference, for “imitation” or “emulation”—a term employed to an increasing extent by English-speaking authors—by every observant Imāmī S̲h̲īʿī (with the exception of mud̲j̲tahids ) on all aspects of religious practice and law. As in the case of other institutions, the history of this function (called mar…

, the son and successor of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ṣafī al-Dīn Ardabīlī [ q.v.] and the founder at Ardabīl of the Ṣafawī order which stemmed from S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Zāhid Gīlānī (d. 700/1301). S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ṣadr al-Dīn was born in 704/1305 from Ṣafī al-Dīn’s second marriage with Bībī Fāṭima, daughter of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Zāhid, and died in 794/1391-2, according to the Silsilat al-nasab-i ṣafawiyya , hence dying aged 90 having directed the Ṣafawī order for 59 years. Although the hagio-biographical and historical sources concerning him have to be treated with cau…

, a title derived from the Arabic mawlā ¶ [ q.v.] in its sense of “lord” or “master”, employed currently with composite forms of mawlā, incorporating pronominal or adjectival suffixes, in use in various periods and regions of the Muslim world: mawlāy [ q.v.]/ mūlāy , “my lord” among the S̲h̲arīfī sovereigns of Morocco (Saʿdids, ʿAlawids), the Naṣrids and the Ḥafṣids [see also laḳab ]; mawlānā /(Turkish) mewlānā , “our master”, a title very widespread in the Turco-Iranian world, and still in use today, especially in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent where it denotes Muslims of high rank ( ʿulam…

(a.), a term of Islamic religious polemics, derived from form V of the verb bariʾa . The term tabarruʾ or tabarrī , which can also be found in the apparently incorrect but not uncommon Arabo-Persian form tabarrā (see below), primarily denotes the general idea of exemption or of disengagement, in particular exemption from responsibility. Among the Arabs barāʾa , which is also called k̲h̲alʿ or tabarruʾ, is a pre-Islamic social and legal phenomenon, which has persisted in Bedouin society (Kohlberg, 1986, 139 ff.). In the text of the Ḳurʾān it seems that barāʾa appears very late in the ca…

(a.), used in a personal sense, with an extended ¶ meaning from Arabic “breast” > “foremost, leading part of a thing”, denotes an eminent or superior person or primus inter pares, whence its use for a chief, president or minister; cf. the Ottoman Turkish Grand Vizier’s title ṣadr-i aʿẓam [ q.v.]. The title was especially used in the Persian world for a high religious dignitary whose function ( ṣadārat , ṣidārat ) was concerned essentially with the administration of religious affairs. In the first mentions of the title and in the structural evo…

, a line of sayyids originally from Marʿas̲h̲ [ q.v.], whose nisba became well-known on account of their dynasty which dominated Māzandarān [ q.v.] for most of the period between 760/1358-9 and the second half of the 10th/16th century. The Ṣafawids [ q.v.] were related to them by matrimonial alliances (see Table B and below, 2). Their descendants, offspring of the various branches of the Marʿas̲h̲īs, have continued to bear this nisba by which they are generally known (see below, 3). It was also attributed over the course of the centuries to various sayyid and non- sayyid individuals. Conce…

(Ar. Ḳumm, current Persian pronunciation G̲h̲om rather than Ḳum), a city of central Iran (Media in ancient times, later D̲j̲ibāl or ʿIrāḳ-i ad̲j̲am) situated in lat. 34°38′ N. and long. 50°58′ E., 150 km. to the south of Tehran. It is the capital of a s̲h̲āhristān of the Central Province ( Ustān-i markazī ) and the ninth city of Iran, with a population of 246,873 in 1976. Situated on the great northwest/south-east axis, which follows the foothills of the central Iranian range and skirts the fold of the Zagros, it lies at the …

(a.) denotes, in contemporary usage, one who possesses the aptitude to form ¶ his own judgement on questions concerning the s̲h̲arīʿa , using personal effort ( id̲j̲tihād [ q.v.]) in the interpretation of the fundamental principles ( uṣūl [ q.v.]) of the s̲h̲arīʿa. The prerogatives of mud̲j̲tahid s are thus essentially linked to the diverse connotations of the term id̲j̲tihād which have varied in the course of time and according to schools. Its application to the field of jurisprudence is in fact a narrowing of the concept, the terms id̲j̲tahada / id̲j̲tihād sign…

(Kāzirūn; lat. 29° 37′ N., long. 51° 38′ E.), town and district ( s̲h̲ahristān ) of Fārs (7th ustān of Iran), bordered by the s̲h̲ahristāns of Behbahān, S̲h̲īrāz [ q.v.], Fīrūzabād [ q.v.], and Būs̲h̲ahr [ q.v.]. Situated on the edge of the Southern Zagros (orientation N.—S.E.; alt. of 2 to 3,000 m. to the north, of the River Fahliyān; below 2,000 m. to the South), the s̲h̲ahristān has, due to its altitude and the proximity of the Persian Gulf, a warm to very warm climate in summer, temperate to cold in the other seasons, the variations being largely due to alt…

, the name of two places in Persia. I. Tihrān, a city of northern Persia. 1. Geographical position. 2. History to 1926. 3. The growth of Tihrān. (a). To ca 1870. (b). Urbanisation, monuments, cultural and socioeconomic life until the time of the Pahlavīs. (c). Since the advent of the Pahlavīs. II. Tihrān, the former name of a village or small town in the modern province of Iṣfahān. I. Tihrān, older form (in use until the earlier 20th century) Ṭihrān (Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, iv, 51, gives both forms, with Ṭihrān as the head word; al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, i…

( āyat allāh , current orthography Ayatollah), a title with an hierarchical significance used by the Imāmī, Twelver S̲h̲īʿīs, and meaning literally “Miraculous sign ( āya [ q.v.]) of God”. In order to understand its sense and its implications, one has to consider the recent evolution of certain institutions worked out by the Imāmī ʿulamāʾ . Since the dominating attitude of Imāmism has been dictated by the doctrine that all political power—even if exercised by a S̲h̲īʿī—is illegitimate during the occultation of the Hidden Imām, it has only been compar…