Table of Contents

• ĀB

  Multiple Authors

  Persian word meaning “water.”

• ĀB i. The concept of water in ancient Iranian culture

  Mary Boyce

  The ancient Iranians respected water as the source of life, which nourished plants, animals, and men. In their cosmology water was the second of the seven “creations.”

• ĀB ii. Water in Muslim Iranian culture

  I. K. Poonawala

  Water constitutes an essential element in Islamic ritual, as a means of purification, and serves as a common theme in folklore. 

• ĀB iii. The hydrology and water resources of the Iranian plateau

  P. Beaumont

  The Iranian plateau is a large area of inland (endoreic) drainage in central Iran bounded to the north by the Alburz mountains, to the west and south by the Zagros mountains, and to the east by a series of ranges referred to as the Eastern Iranian Highlands.

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• ĀB-ANBĀR

  R. Holod, M. Sotūda

  "Water reservoir,” a term commonly used throughout Iran as a designation for roofed underground water cisterns.

• ĀB-ANBĀR i. History

  R. Holod

  The āb-anbār was one of the constructions developed in Iran as part of a water management system in areas reliant on permanent (springs, qanāt/kāriz) or on seasonal (rain) water.

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• AB-ANBĀR ii. Construction

  M. Sotūda

  Cisterns are built in towns and villages throughout Iran, as well as at crossroads, caravanseries, and hospices (rebāṭ). While town cisterns may be filled with rain water or from qanāts, most āb-anbārs along caravan routes are filled from the spring torrents of nearby streams.

• ĀB-E DEZ

  H. Gaube

  a major river of Ḵūzestān and the one most vital to its economy. It rises in the central Zagros mountains about 20 km northeast of Borūǰerd near the village of Čahār Borra.

• ĀB-E GARM

  E. Ehlers

  “warm water.” Hot springs and mineral springs in Iran. The Alborz range as a whole, particularly the central area around the Damāvand volcano, forms the most extensive region of thermal and mineral springs in Iran. 

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• ĀB-E ḤAYĀT

  Cross-Reference

  Āb-e Ḥayāt, also called ʿAyn al-Ḥayāt or Nahr al-Ḥayāt, meaning the fountain of life, is associated with Ḵeżr, who is identified with the unnamed companion of Moses in the Koran (18:65-82). See ĀB ii. Water in Muslim Iranian culture.

• ĀB-E ĪSTĀDA

  C. E. Bosworth

  “Still water,” a salt lake in the province of Ḡazna in modern Afghanistan, lying 30 km southeast of the present Ḡazna-Kandahār highway and 100 km south of Ḡazna itself.

• ĀB-ḠŪRA

  N. Ramazani

  (or ĀB-E ḠŪRA), the juice of unripe grapes, used in Persian cuisine.

• ĀB-GŪŠT

  EIr and N. Ramazani

  “Meat juice,” a popular Persian meat-based soup or stew, consisting of lamb, some legume, and herb and seasoning.

• ĀB-NĀHĪD

  Mary Boyce

   “Nāhid of the Water,” a Zoroastrian woman’s name, first attested in the poem Vis o Rāmīn.

• ĀB-ZŌHR

  Mary Boyce

  “Offering of water,” the Middle Persian form of a Zoroastrian technical term, Av. Ape zaoθra. Making the offering of water is the culminating rite of the main Zoroastrian act of worship, the yasna; and preparing and consecrating it is at the center of the rituals of the second part of this service.

• ABAD

  Joseph van Ess

  “Eternity a parte post,” Arabic theological term meaning “eternity a parte post” (already in early Muʿtazilite theology); it corresponds to Greek atéleuton. It sometimes also serves as a general term for unlimited time (dahr).

• ĀBĀDA

  C. E. Bosworth

  Name of (1) a small town in northern Fārs province, and (2) a medieval town near the northern shore of Lake Baḵtegān in Fārs.

• ĀBĀDĀN

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton, X. de Planhol

  City and island in the Ḵūzestān province at the head of the Persian Gulf.

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• ĀBĀDĪ

  Ahmad Ashraf

  “Settlement, inhabited space,” Persian term usally applied to the rural environment; in colloquial usage it often refers to towns and cities as well.

• ABĀLIŠ

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  Zoroastrian of the 9th century A.D. who apostatized to Islam.

• ĀBĀN

  Mary Boyce

  Middle Persian term meaning “the waters” (Av. āpō). In Indo-Iranian the word for water is grammatically feminine; the element itself was always characterized as female and was represented by a group of goddesses, the Āpas.

• ABĀN B. ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD

  I. Abbas

  late 2nd/8th century poet. He was of a Persian family, originally from Fasā, which had settled (probably at an early date) in Baṣra.

• ĀBĀN MĀH

  Mary Boyce

  The eighth month of the Zoroastrian year, dedicated to the waters, Ābān.

• ĀBĀN YAŠT

  Mary Boyce

  Middle Persian name of the fifth hymn among the Zoroastrian hymns to individual divinities. It is the third longest, with 131 verses.

• ĀBĀNAGĀN

  Cross-Reference

  the name used by Bīrūnī (Āṯār, p. 224) for the Zoroastrian feast-day dedicated to the Waters, which was celebrated on the day Ābān of the month Ābān. See further under ĀBĀN MĀH.

• ĀBĀNDOḴT

  W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

  Character in the prose romance Dārāb-nāma of Abū Ṭāher Moḥammad b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Mūsā al-Ṭarsūsī, a storyteller of the Ghaznavid period.

• ABAQA

  Peter Jackson

  (or ABAḠA, “paternal uncle” in Mongolian; ABĀQĀ in Persian and Arabic), eldest son and first successor of the Il-khan Hülegü.

• ʿABAQĀT AL-ANWĀR

  ʿA.-N. Monzavi

  A large Arabic work by Mīr Ḥāmed Ḥosayn b. Moḥammad-qolī b. Moḥammad b. Ḥāmed of Lucknow on the legitimacy of the imamate and the defense of Shiʿite theology.

• ABAR NAHARA

  Cross-Reference

  Aramaic name for the lands to the west of the Euphrates—i.e., Phoenicia, Syria, and Palestine (Parpola, p. 116; Zadok, p. 129; see ASSYRIA ii). These regions apparently passed from Neo-Babylonian to Persian control in 539 B.C.E. when Cyrus the Great conquered Mesopotamia. See EBER-NĀRĪ.

• ABARKĀVĀN

  M. Kasheff

  Late Sasanian name of Qešm island in the Straits of Hormoz.

• ABARQOBĀḎ

  C. E. Bosworth

  Ancient town of lower Iraq between Baṣra and Vāseṭ, to the east of the Tigris, in the region adjacent to Ahvāz, known in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times as Mēšūn (Mid. Pers. form) or Maysān/Mayšān (Syriac and Arabic forms).

• ABARQUH

  Multiple Authors

  (or ABARQŪYA), a town in northern Fārs; it was important in medieval times, but, being off the main routes, it is now largely decayed.

• ABARQUH i. History

  C. E. Bosworth

  In present-day Iran, Abarqūh is situated in the tenth ostān, that of Isfahan, and forms a baḵš or district of the šahrestān of Yazd.

• ABARQUH ii. Monuments

  R. Hillenbrand

  Numerous pre-Safavid monuments survive in Abarqūh, but the lack of important later buildings suggests a sharp decline in the city’s wealth.

• ABARŠAHR

  H. Gaube

  Name of Nīšāpūr province in western Khorasan. From the early Sasanian period, Nišāpur, which was founded or rebuilt by Šāpur I in the first years of his reign, was the administrative center of the province.

• ABARSĀM

  E. Yarshater

  (APURSĀM in Middle Persian), a dignitary and high-ranking officeholder of the court of the Sasanian king Ardašīr I (A.D. 226-42).

• ABARSĒN

  C. J. Brunner

  Middle Persian form of the Avestan name Upāiri.saēna, designating the Hindu Kush mountains (Av. iškata; Mid. Pers. kōf, gar) of central and eastern Afghanistan.

• ABASKŪN

  C. E. Bosworth

  (ĀBASKŪN), a port of the medieval period on the southwest shore of the Caspian Sea in Gorgān province.

• ʿABĀʾ

  H. Algar

  (in Arabic, also ʿabāʾa and ʿabāya), a loose outer garment, generally for men, worn widely throughout the Middle East, particularly by Arab nomads. 

• ABBĀ ISAIAH

  N. Sims-Williams

  (i.e., “Father” Isaiah), late 4th century A.D., author of Christian ascetical texts; from these it appears that he was a hermit who lived in the desert of Scete in Egypt, of whom several anecdotes are told in the Apophthegmata patrum.

• ʿABBĀD B. SALMĀN

  W. Madelung

  (or SOLAYMĀN), Muʿtazilite theologian of the 3rd/9th century.

• ʿABBĀS (I)

  R. M. Savory

  Shah Abbas, Safavid king of Iran (996-1038/1588-1629). Styled "Shah ʿAbbās the Great," he was the third son and successor of Solṭān Moḥammad Shah.

• ʿABBĀS (II)

  R. M. Savory

  Safavid king of Iran (1052-77/1642-66).

• ʿABBĀS (III)

  R. M. Savory

  Son of Shah Ṭahmāsp II, roi fainéant of the Safavid dynasty (1732-40).

• ʿABBĀS AḤVAL

  D. M. Dunlop

  Leader of an Arab invasion of the lower Euphrates region in which the Savād of Iraq was ravaged, in about A.D. 589, toward the end of the reign of Hormozd IV.

• ʿABBĀS B. ʿALĪ B. ABŪ ṬĀLEB

  J. Calmard

  Half brother of Imam Ḥosayn, who fought bravely at the battle of Karbalā. According to most traditions, he was killed on the day of ʿĀšurā (10 Moḥarram 61/10 October 680) while trying to bring back water from the Euphrates river to quench the unbearable thirst of the besieged Ahl-e Bayt (holy family).

• ʿABBĀS B. ḤOSAYN

  C. Cahen

  Buyid vizier, d. 362/973.

• ʿABBĀS B. REŻĀ-QOLĪ KHAN NŪRĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher and civil servant, d. 1255/1839-40.

• ʿABBĀS EFFENDI

  Cross-Reference

  The eldest son of Bahāʾallāh and founder of the Bahaʾi movement. See ʿABD-AL-BAHĀʾ.

• ʿABBĀS MĪRZĀ QAJAR

  H. Busse

  Son of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah and father of the line of Qajar rulers from Moḥammad Shah on (1789-1833).

• ʿABBĀS, ḤĀJĪ

  J. W. Allan

  Signature found on a number of pieces of metalwork from Iran.

• ʿABBĀS-QOLĪ KHAN

  D. M. Lang

  Persian viceroy in eastern Georgia (1099-1105/1688-94), under the Safavid shahs Solaymān and Solṭān Ḥosayn.

• ʿABBĀS-QOLĪ MĪRZĀ QAJAR

  H. Busse

  A grandson of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Qajar (d. 1824 or 1825).

• ʿABBĀSĀBĀD

  Kamran Ekbal

  fortress built in 1810 by ʿAbbās Mīrzā on the northern bank of the Araxes river; it commanded the passage of the Araxes and was of special strategic importance for the defense of the Naḵjavān khanate.

• ʿABBĀSĀBĀD Caravan Station

  W. Kleiss

  Flourishing caravan station of the Safavid period.

• ʿABBĀSĪ

  P. Avery, B. G. Fragner, J. B. Simmons

  A name first applied to the principal gold and silver coins issued by the Safavid king ʿAbbās I (1581-1629); it continued in use until the beginning of the 20th century.

• ʿABBĀSĪ GOJARĀTĪ

  Y. Richard

  Indian literary figure who wrote in Persian (d. 1048/1638).

• ʿABBĀSĪ RABENJANĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  10th century Samanid poet.

• ʿABBĀSĪ, ŠAYḴ

  R. Skelton

  A Safavid miniature painter, whose known works include seventeen signed and dated examples executed between the years 1060/1650 and 1095/1683-84.

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• ABBASID CALIPHATE

  C. E. Bosworth

  the third dynasty of caliphs who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs in Damascus.

• ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪ BAḤR-AL-ʿOLŪM

  F. Robinson

  A leading Indian theologian of the Ḥanafī school (18th century).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪ BĪRJANDĪ

  D. Pingree

  (or BARJANDĪ) Islamic astronomer, said to have died in 934/1527-28.

• ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪM NAṢRALLĀḤ KHAN

  Hameed ud-Din

  “QAMAR,” government official, historian, biographer, translator, and grammarian in British India (19th century).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿAẒĪM AL-ḤASANĪ

  W. Madelung

  Shiʿite ascetic and transmitter buried in the main sanctuary of Ray (9th century).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB

  D. Duda

  Painter of the Safavid period (16th century).

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• ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. NAḎR MOḤAMMAD

  M. H. Siddiqi

  Toghay-Timurid (Janid) dynast of the Uzbeks in Bukhara (r. 1647-80).

• ʿABD-al-ʿAZĪZ ḤEKĪMBĀŠĪ

  T. Yazici

  Ottoman physician and translator (d. 1782-83).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ MOḤADDEṮ DEHLAVĪ

  Azduddin Khan

  Sunni theologian and mystic (1746-1824).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ QARA ČELEBIZĀDA

  T. Yazici

  Ottoman historian and translator (1591-1658).

• ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ SOLṬĀN

  Yu. Bregel

  Shaibanid ruler of Bokhara (d. 1550).

• ʿABD-AL-BAHĀʾ

  A. Bausani, D. MacEoin

  epithet assumed by ʿAbbās Effendi, the eldest son of Bahāʾallāh, founder of the Bahaʾi movement. The epithet means “servant of the glory of God” or “servant of Bahāʾallāh.”

• ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ LAʿLĪZĀDA

  T. Yazici

  (d. 1746 A.D.), Ottoman scholar, son of Shaikh Laʿlī Meḥmed, the grandson of Sarı ʿAbdallāh, a commentator on the Maṯnavī. 

• ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ NAHĀVANDĪ

  Hameed ud-Din

  Mughal noble and biographer.

• ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ TABRĪZĪ

  ʿAbd-al-ʿAlī Kārang

  religious scholar and notable of Azerbaijan (d. 1039/1629-30).

• ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ YAZDĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Safavid official and poet skilled in calligraphy, killed at the battle of Čālderān in Raǰab 920/August 1514.

• ʿABD-AL-BARĪ

  F. Robinson

  early 20th century Indian scholar and pīr of the Ferangī Maḥal family.

• ʿABD-AL-FATTĀḤ GARMRŪDĪ

  H. Algar

  (ca. 1200-64/1786-1848), a scribe and minor author of the mid-Qajar period.

• ʿABD-AL-FATTĀH ḤOSAYNĪ

  M. B. Badakhshani

  Indian scholar of Persian and Arabic.

• ʿABD-AL-ḠANĪ KHAN

  M. Baqir

  Indian literary scholar and a poet in Persian and Urdu (d. 1916).

• ʿABD-AL-HĀDĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ

  H. Algar

  (1305-82/1888-1962), a Shiʿite scholar of Naǰaf, highly regarded for his learning and piety.

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. ABUʾL-ḤADĪD

  W. Madelung

  Muʿtazilite scholar and man of letters (13th century).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. AḤMAD

  C. E. Bosworth

  Vizier of the Ghaznavids in the late 5th/11th to early 6th/12th century. He is described as serving Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (451-92/1059-99).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMID b. AḤMAD b. ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD ŠIRĀZI

  C. E. Bosworth

  long-serving vizier to the Ghaznavid sultans Ebrāhim b. Masʿud (r. 451-92/1059-99) and his son Masʿud III (r. 492-508/1199-1215).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. ʿĪSĀ

  G. C. Anawati

  Physician, theologian, philosopher, and jurist (580-652/1184-1254).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. VĀSEʿ

  D. Pingree

  Mathematician, often referred to as Ebn Tork, who apparently flourished at the beginning of the 2nd/9th century.

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. YAḤYĀ

  W. N. Brinner

  An important figure in the development of Arabic epistolary style, especially in the stablishment of chancery style during the Umayyad period (d. 132/750).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD LĀHŪRĪ

  R. M. Eaton

  17th-century Indo-Persian historian and author of the Pādšāh-nāma, the official account of the reign of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahān (1037-67/1628-57).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD MALEK-AL-KALĀMĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher, poet, and government official (d. 1949).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAQQ DEHLAVĪ

  N. H. Zaidi

  Noted Mughal traditionist, historian, essayist, and biographer of saints (16th century).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY AWRANGĀBĀDĪ

  M. Baqir

  administrator, poet, and biographer (1729-82).

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY, ABŪ’L-ḤASANĀT

  F. Robinson

  (1264-1304/1848-86), Indian theologian from the distinguished Farangī Maḥall family.

• ʿABD-AL-ḤAYY, ḴᵛĀJĀ

  P. P. Soucek

  Miniaturist (late 8th/14th century).

• ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR

  D. Duda

  Calligrapher at the Safavid court in Isfahan in the time of Shah ʿAbbās I (17th century).

• ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR ASTARĀBĀDĪ

  D. Duda

  calligrapher of the taʿlīq script and bookpainter. 

• ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR AZDĪ

  D. M. Dunlop

  Governor of Khorasan, executed in 142/759.

• ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR B. AḤMAD

  W. Madelung

  Prominent theologian of the late Muʿtazilite school (10th century).

• ʿABD-AL-JALĪL BELGRĀMĪ

  M. Siddiqi

  Major 17th/18th century Indo-Muslim litterateur.

• ʿABD-AL-JALĪL RĀZĪ

  W. Madelung

  Emāmī Shiʿite scholar, preacher, and author, b. probably early in the 6th/12th century.

• ʿABD-AL-ḴĀLEQ ḠOJDOVĀNĪ

  K. A. Nizami

  Teacher and distinguished Naqšbandī saint (d. 617/1220), who consolidated and transmitted the thought of the Naqšbandī order.

• ʿABD-AL-ḴĀN

  P. Oberling

  An Arab tribe of Ḵūzestān, it was originally affiliated with the Bani Lām tribal confederacy and resided in the region of ʿAmāra, in present-day Iraq.

• ʿABD-AL-KARĪM ʿALAVĪ

  N. H. Zaidi

  Early 19th century Indo-Persian historian (d. ca. 1851).

• ʿABD-AL-KARĪM BOḴĀRĪ

  M. Zand

  Bukharan traveler and memorialist (d. after 1830-31).

• ʿABD-AL-KARĪM GAZĪ

  H. Algar

  A respected religious leader of Isfahan (1856-1921).

• ʿABD-AL-KARĪM KAŠMĪRĪ

  S. Maqbul Ahmad

  Noted chronicler of Nāder Shah’s military campaigns (d. 1784).

• ʿABD-AL-KARĪM ḴᵛĀRAZMĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Poet and calligrapher in western Iran (15th century).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABD-AL-LAṬĪF BHETĀʾĪ

  M. Baqir

  Sufi poet of Sind (1689-1752).

• ʿABD-AL-LAṬĪF MĪRZĀ

  C. P. Haase

  Timurid ruler in Samarqand from Ramażān, 853/October, 1449 to 26 Rabīʿ I 854/8 May 1450.

• ʿABD-AL-MAJĪD ṬĀLAQĀNĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  evered as the calligrapher who gave šekasta script its definitive form.

• ʿABD-AL-MALEK B. NŪḤ

  C. E. Bosworth

  the penultimate ruler of the Samanid dynasty in Khorasan and Transoxania, r. 389/999.

• ʿABD-AL-MALEK B. NŪḤ B. NAṢR

  C. E. Bosworth

  ruler of the Samanid dynasty in Transoxania and Khorasan, 343-350/954-61.

• ʿABD-AL-MALEK ŠĪRĀZĪ

  D. Pingree

  astronomer, fl. ca. 600/1203-04; there is a manuscript dated in that year of his revision of Helāl b. Abū Helāl and Ṯābet b. Qorra’s translation of the Conica of Appolonius.

• ʿABD-AL-MALEKĪ

  P. Oberling

  a Lek tribe of Māzandarān.

• ʿABD-AL-MOʾMEN B. ʿABDALLĀH

  R. D. McChesney

  generally reckoned as the eleventh khan of the Shaibanid (Abu’l-Ḵayrī) dynasty of Māvarāʾ al-Nahr and Balḵ.

• ʿABD-AL-MONʿEM ʿĀMELĪ

  D. Pingree

  10th/16th century astronomer.

• ʿABD-AL-NABĪ

  K. A. Nizami

  Mughal traditionist, for a time much esteemed by the emperor Akbar (16th century).

• ʿABD-AL-NABĪ AḤMADNAGARĪ

  M. Baqir

  12th/18th century Gujerati scholar.

• ʿABD-AL-NABĪ QAZVĪNĪ

  M. Baqir

  Storyteller and poet in Mughal India (17th-century).

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER BALḴĪ

  T. Yazici

  (1839-1923), an Ottoman Sufi and poet who came originally from Balḵ. 

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER ḤOSAYNĪ

  M. Baqir

  16th-century poet of Sind.

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER JĪLĀNĪ

  B. Lawrence

  noted Hanbalite preacher, Sufi shaikh and the eponymous founder of the Qāderī order.

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER KHAN

  M. Aslam

  Author of Avīmāq-e Moḡol (publ. 1900), better known as Mirzā Moḥammad Āḡā Jān.

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER KHAN JĀʾEŠĪ

  M. Baqir

  Late Mughal biographer (18th-19th century).

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER RŪYĀNĪ

  D. Pingree

  Astronomer (16th century).

• ʿABD-AL-QĀDER ŠĪRĀZĪ

  E. Baer

  Metalworker of late 13th century, whose one attested signed work is a silver and gold-inlaid brass bowl (Galleria Estense, Modena, no. 8082).

• ʿABD-AL-QĀHER B. ṬĀHER

  Cross-Reference

  See BAḠDĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-QĀHER.

• ʿABD-AL-QĀHER JORJĀNĪ

  K. Abu Deeb

  celebrated grammarian, rhetorician, and literary theorist, born in Gorgān (date unknown), where he died in 471/1078.

• ʿABD-AL-QAYS

  P. Oberling

  an eastern Arabian tribe.

• ʿABD-AL-QODDŪS B. SOLṬĀN MOḤAMMAD

  R. D. McChesney

  called ŠAGASĪ, prominent Afghan military and political figure of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• ʿABD-AL-QODDŪS GANGŌHĪ

  B. B. Lawrence

  Indo-Muslim saint and litterateur (d. 1537).

• ʿABD-AL-RĀFEʿ HERAVĪ

  Żīā-al-dīn Sajjādī

  poet, grammarian, and physician, first attached to the court of Ḵosrow Malek (555-82/1160-76), the last Ghaznavid sultan.

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM ʿAJAMĪ

  D. Pingree

  Astronomer (d. 1026/1617).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM ʿANBARĪN-QALAM

  M. A. Chaghatai

  Calligrapher of India (fl. late 10th-11th centuries).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM DEHLAVĪ

  Fazlur Rahman

  Late Mughal scholar (d. 1726).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM ḴĀN ḴĀNĀN

  N. H. Zaidi

  Mughal general and statesman (d. 1627).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM ḴAYYĀṬ

  W. Madelung

  Muʿtazilite theologian of Baghdad (9th century).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤĪM ḴᵛĀRAZMĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher and poet active in western Iran during the second half of the 9th/15th century.

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN B. ʿOMAR ṢŪFĪ

  P. Kunitzsch

  Astronomer, especially well versed in knowledge of the fixed stars (10th century).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN B. SAMORA

  M. G. Morony

  Arab general who campaigned in Sīstān (d. 50/670).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN B. SOYŪNJ

  R. D. MacChesney

  An Uzbek amir in Balḵ (17th century).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN ČEŠTĪ

  Hameed ud-Din

  Mughal saint and biographer (17th century).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN KHAN

  Cross-Reference

  Emir or ruler of Afghanistan, and member of the Bārakzay tribe of the Dorrāni tribal confederation, who unified the kingdom after the second Anglo-Afghan war (r. 1297-1319/1880-1901). See AFGHANISTAN x. Political History, BĀRAKZI, and DORRĀNI.

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN KᵛĀRAZMĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher specializing in nastaʿlīq, active during the middle decades of the 9th/15th century.

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SAMARQANDĪ

  Y. Bregel

  late 19th century secretary (mīrzā). A Tajik, he was a native of Samarqand. 

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SARAḴSĪ

  I. Abbas

  A Hanafite jurist (d. 1047).

• ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN ŠAYZARĪ

  H. H. Biesterfeldt

  Syrian author and contemporary of Saladin (d. 589/1193).

• ʿABD-AL-RAŠĪD DAYLAMĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher and poet who served the Mughal ruler Shah Jahān (1037-58/1628-58).

• ʿABD-AL-RAŠĪD TATTAVĪ

  W. M. Thackston

  Noted lexicographer attached to the court of the Mughal ruler Shah Jahān.

• ʿABD-AL-RAŠĪD, ABŪ MANṢŪR

  C. E. Bosworth

  Ghaznavid sultan, r. 441-44/1050-53.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ

  D. Duda

  Name of two artists of the Safavid period.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ AWRANGĀBĀDĪ

  Hameed ud-Din

  Mughal official and biographer, chiefly famous as the author of Maʾāṯer al-omarāʾ (18th century).

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ b. AḤMAD b. ḤASAN MEYMANDI

  C. E. Bosworth

  vizier to the Ghaznavid sultans Mawdud b. Masʿud and ʿAbd-al-Rašid b. Maḥmud, remaining in official service under the latter’s successor Farroḵzād b. Masʿud.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ BĀŠTĪNĪ

  J. Aubin

  First leader of the Sarbadār uprising of Bayhaq (14th-century). His career, like the entire history of the Sarbadārs, is related in a contradictory fashion by the Timurid period chroniclers. With appropriate details, he is pictured as violent and dissolute.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ BEG

  J. R. Perry

  (1176-1243/1762-63 to 1827-28), literary biographer, poet, and historian of the early Qajar period.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ LĀHĪJĪ

  W. Madelung

  Theologian and philosopher (and poet under the pen name FAYYĀŻ, 11th/17th century).

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ MAYMANDĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  Ghaznavid vizier of the middle years of the 5th/11th century.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ NAYSABŪRĪ

  E. Baer

  Metalworker of the second half of the 6th/12th century.

• ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ SAMARQANDĪ

  C. P. Haase

  Historian and scholar (1413-82).

• ʿABD-AL-REŻĀ KHAN

  M. Bayat

  (d. 1249/1833), deputy-governor and powerful noble of Yazd.

• ʿABD-AL-REŻĀ KHAN EBRĀHĪMĪ

  D. MacEoin

  fifth head of the Kermānī branch of the Šayḵī school of Shiʿism.

• ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD B. AFŻAL MOḤAMMAD

  M. Baqir

  Mughal editor and author (17th century)

• ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD ḤAMADĀNĪ

  M. Bayat

  Faqīh, author, and well-known Sufi master of the Neʿmatallāhī order (d. 1216/1801).

• ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD KHAN

  S. Maqbul Ahmad

  North Indian politician, administrator, and patron of the arts (17th-18th century).

• ʿABD-AL-ṢAMAD ŠĪRĀZĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Painter, calligrapher, and Mughal courtier (16th century). He entered the service of Homāyūn at Kabul in 956/1549 and remained an important artistic and governmental figure under Akbar (963-1014/1556-1605).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABD-AL-SATTĀR LAHŪRĪ

  A. Camps

  author and translator in the reigns of Akbar and Jahāngīr.

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED (Potter)

  O. Watson

  A potter whose signature is found on a blue and black underglaze painted dish dated 971/1563.

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED (Author)

  D. Pingree

  8th/14th century author.

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED B. ZAYD

  P. Nwyia

  (d. 177/793), Sufi, the leading personality among the ascetics trained in the school of Ḥasan Baṣrī.

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED HAMADĀNĪ

  T. Yazici

  Son of a Naqšbandī shaikh, author (d. 1547).

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED JŪZJĀNĪ

  D. Pingree

  Pupil of Ebn Sīnā (980-1037).

• ʿABD-AL-VĀḤED MAŠHADĪ

  F. Cağman and P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher active during the first half of the 10th/16th century.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB BOHRĀ

  P. Saran

  chief judge (qāżī) in the reign of the Mughal emperor Awrangzēb.

• ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB MAŠHADĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  a calligrapher of the 10th/16th century who lived most of his life in Mašhad.

• ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB MOʿTAMAD-AL-DAWLA

  H. Javadi

  “NAŠĀṬ,” Qajar official and poet (1759-1829).

• ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB SAČAL

  A. Schimmel

  Sindhi mystical poet (18th-early 19th century).

• ʿABD-AL-VĀSEʿ JABALĪ

  Ẕ. Ṣafā

  Persian poet, d. 555/1160.

• ABDADĀNA

  M. Dandamayev

  Region in western Media, mentioned in Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions and annals.

• ABDAGASES

  C. J. Brunner

  “great king” of the Pahlava dynasty in Drangiana, Arachosia, Gandhāra, and perhaps loosely over the Indus region.

• ʿABDAK AL-ṢŪFĪ

  B. Reinert

  an eccentric religious devotee of Kūfa, who also lived for periods at Baghdad, late 2nd/8th to early 3rd/9th centuries.

• ABDĀL

  J. Chabbi

  An Arabic technical term designating one of the categories of awlīāʾ (“friends of God,” Muslim saints).

• ABDĀL BEG

  E. Glassen

  one of the seven trusted Qezelbāš amirs (ahl-e eḵteṣāṣ) who, after the death of Solṭān ʿAlī (898/1493), accompanied the latter’s young brother and designated master of the Safavid order, Esmāʿīl, to Lāhīǰān, where he found refuge from the persecution of the Āq Qoyonlū rulers.

• ABDĀL ČEŠTĪ

  M. Imam

  described by Jāmī as the foremost among the shaikhs of Češt. He was born in 260/874.

• ABDĀL, QARA ŠEMSĪ

  T. Yazici

  (1244-1303/1828-86), a Turkish poet who also wrote poetry in Persian.

• ABDĀLĪ

  C. M. Kieffer

  ancient name of a large tribe, or more particularly of a group of Afghan tribes, better known by the name of Dorrānī since the reign of Aḥmad Šāh Dorrānī (1747-72). 

• ʿABDALLĀH

  L. Mackie

  Name appearing on four diverse, high-quality silks of the first half of the 17th century.

• ʿABDALLĀH (2)

  I. H. Siddiqi

  Author of Tārīḵ-e Dāʾūdī, fl. early 17th century.

• ʿABDALLĀH ANṢĀRĪ

  S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil

  Outstanding commentator of the Koran, traditionist, polemicist, and spiritual master (5th/11th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. AḤMAD

  Cross-Reference

  See EBN AL-BAYṬĀR.

• ʿABDALLĀH B. ʿĀMER

  J. Lassner

  Arab general and governor active in Iran, b. in Mecca in 4/626.

• ʿABDALLĀH B. EBRĀHĪM

  C. P. Haase

  Timurid khan (k. 1451).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. ʿĪSĀ

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  Medical author (early 5th/11th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. ḴĀZEM

  D. M. Dunlop

  Arab military leader, governor of Khorasan (d. 691-92).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. MAYMŪN AL-QADDĀḤ

  H. Halm

  Legendary founder of the Qarmatian-Ismaʿili doctrine and alleged forefather of the Fatimid dynasty.

• ʿABDALLĀH B. MOʿĀVĪA

  D. M. Dunlop

  Rebel in western Iran in 744-47.

• ʿABDALLĀH B. MOBĀRAK

  P. Nwyia

  Traditionist (736-97).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. NAJĀŠĪ

  ʿA. N. Monzavī

  Shiʿite governor of Ahvāz under the caliph Manṣūr (8th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. ʿOMAR

  ʿA. Ḥabībī

  Author of an Arabic monograph on the city of Balḵ (d. after 610/1213).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. ŠĀKER

  D. Pingree

  Expert in geometry (d. 1174-75).

• ʿABDALLĀH B. ṬĀHER

  C. E. Bosworth

  Governor of Khorasan (9th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH BAYĀNĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABDALLĀH MORVĀRĪD.

• ʿABDALLĀH BEHBAHĀNĪ

  H. Algar

  Theologian, prominent leader of the constitutional movement (1840-1910).

• ʿABDALLĀH BOḴĀRĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Painter active in Bukhara during the middle decades of the 16th century.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABDALLĀH HERAVĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Calligrapher active in Herat, Samarqand, and Mashad (mid-15th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH ḤOSAYNĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Scribe and poet in the service of the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahāngīr (17th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH KABRĪ

  D. Pingree

  Mathematician (d. 1083-84).

• ʿABDALLĀH KHAN

  B. W. Robinson

  Court painter (18th-19th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH KHAN B. ESKANDAR

  Yu. Bregel

  Šaybānīd ruler of Transoxania (d. 1598).

• ʿABDALLĀH KHAN UZBEK

  M. H. Siddiqi

  Mughal noble and general and also briefly an autonomous ruler (10th/16th century).

• ʿABDALLĀH MĀZANDARĀNĪ, SHAIKH

  H. Algar

  Theologian and supporter of the constitutional movement (1840-1912).

• ʿABDALLĀH MĪRZĀ DĀRĀ

  Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

  Son of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah and governor of Ḵamsa province (1796-1846).

• ʿABDALLĀH MORVĀRĪD

  P. P. Soucek

  (d. 1516), Timurid court official, poet, scribe, and musician.

• ʿABDALLĀH PAŠA KÖPRÜLÜZĀDE

  M. Kohbach

  Ottoman statesman and commander-in-chief (d. 1735).

• ʿABDALLĀH ṢAYRAFĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Influential calligrapher (d. after 1345-46).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABDALLĀH ŠĪRĀZĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Painter and illuminator of the late 10th/16th century.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ʿABDALLĀH, MĪRZĀ

  M. Caton

  (ca. 1843-1918), court musician and master of the setār and tār.

• ʿABDALLĀH, QAVĀM-AL-DĪN

  T. Kuroyanagi

  14th century theologian and faqīh of Shiraz (d. 772/1370).

• ʿABDALLĀH, ŠĀH

  K. A. Nizami

  (d. 1485), Persian Sufi who introduced the Šaṭṭārī order into India.

• ʿABDALLĀH, ṢĀRĪ

  T. Yazici

  (1584-1660), Ottoman scholar, mystic, poet, and commentator of Rūmī.

• ʿABDĀN B. AL-RABĪṬ

  W. Madelung

  early Ismaʿili missionary (dāʿī).

• ʿABDĪ

  T. Yazici

  pen name of ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN PASHA, Ottoman official and historian (d. 1692).

• ʿABDĪ BOḴĀRĀʾĪ

  M. Zand

  (d. 1921-22), Tajik taḏkeranevīs (biographer) and poet.

• ʿABDĪ NĪŠĀPŪRĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  16th-century calligrapher and poet.

• ʿABDĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī and B. Fragner

  (1513-80), poet.

• ABDĪH UD SAHĪGĪH Ī SAGASTĀN

  A. Tafażżolī

  (“The wonder and remarkability of Sagastān”), short Pahlavi treatise.

• ʿĀBEDĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  a landowner (dehqān) of Transoxania (12th century).

• ĀBƎRƎT

  W. W. Malandra

  one of the eight Zoroastrian priests of the yasna ritual.

• ĀBEŠ ḴĀTŪN

  B. Spuler

   Salghurid ruler of Fārs (1263-84), daughter of Atābeg Saʿd II.

• ABGAR

  J. B. Segal

  dynasty of Edessa, 2nd century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.

• ABHAR

  C. E. Bosworth

  a small town in the Qazvīn district.

• ʿABHAR AL-ʿĀŠEQĪN

  H. Corbin

  work of the Persian mystic Rūzbehān Baqlī Šīrāzī (1128-1209).

• ABHARĪ, ABŪ BAKR

  B. Reinert

  Sufi of Persian ʿErāq (d. 941-42).

• ABHARĪ, AMĪN-AL-DĪN

  D. Pingree

   mathematician, said to have died in 1332-33.

• ABHARĪ, AṮĪR-AL-DĪN

  G. C. Anawati

  (d. 1264), logician, mathematician, and astronomer.

• ABHARĪ, KAMĀL-AL-DĪN

  C. E. Bosworth

  vizier of the last two Great Saljuq sultans in western Persia.

• ABHARĪ, MAḴDŪM

  Hameed ud-Din

  16th-century traditionist.

• ĀBĪ

  E. Ehlers

  Persian term for those agricultural lands which are irrigated.

• ĀBĪ, ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH

  Abu’l-Qāsem Gorji

  8th-century traditionist.

• ĀBĪ, ABŪ SAʿĪD

  M. M. Mazzaoui

  11th-century vizier and man of letters.

• ĀBĪ, ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN

  Abu’l-Qāsem Gorji

  Imami faqīh (jurist) of the 13th century.

• ABIRĀDŪŠ

  M. Dandamayev

  a village in Elam.

• ABIRATTA(Š)

  M. Mayrhofer

  ancient Near Eastern proper name said to be of (Indo-)Aryan origin, by comparison with Vedic ratha, Avestan raθa “chariot.” This analysis, however, remains uncertain.

• ABĪVARD

  C. E. Bosworth

   a town in medieval northern Khorasan.

• ABĪVARDĪ, ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR

  L. A. Giffen

  poet, historian, and writer on genealogy (d. 1113).

• ABĪVARDĪ, ḤOSĀM-AL-DĪN

  L. A. Giffen

  jurisconsult, mathematician and logician (d. 1413).

• ABJAD

  G. Krotkoff

   “alphabet,” a word formed from the first four letters of the Semitic alphabet.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ABJADĪ

  M. Baqir

  Poetical name of MĪR MOḤAMMAD ESMĀʿĪL KHAN, 18th century south-Indian poet of Persian and Urdu.

• ABḴĀZ

  Dzh. Giunashvili

  (also APSUA, APSNI), ethnic group of the Caucasus.

• ABLUTION, ISLAMIC

  I. K. Poonawala

  (vożūʾ), the minor ritual purification performed before prayers.

• ABLUTION, ZOROASTRIAN

  Cross-Reference

  See PADYĀB.

• ABNĀʾ

  C. E. Bosworth

  "sons," term for the offspring of Persian soldiers and officials in the Yemen and of Arab mothers.

• ABOULITES

  C. J. Brunner

  satrap of Susiana under Darius III, at the time of the Achaemenid collapse.

• ABRADATAS

  C. J. Brunner

   a fictional king of Susa in Xenophon’s fictional, didactic life of Cyrus (Cyropaedia, books 5-7).

• ABRAHAM

  Cross-Reference

  See EBRĀHĪM.

• ABRAHAM OF CRETE

  George A. Bournoutian

  (Kretatsʾi; b. Kandia, Crete, ?- d. Ejmiatsin, 18 April 1737), a leader of the Armenian Church and the author of a chronicle about Nāder Shah Afšār.

• ABRAHAM OF EREVAN

  George A. Bournoutian

  the author of a history of the wars in Armenian at the time of Nāder Shah Afšār.

• ABRAHAMIAN, ROUBEN

  Jennifer Manoukian

  Armenian Iranist, linguist, and translator. One of the first teachers of Pahlavi language at University of Tehran.

• ABRĀZ

  C. J. Brunner

  Middle Persian “high, superior, height,” old Iranian *uparyānk- “above, high.”

• ABRĪŠAM

  W. Eilers, M. Bazin and C. Bromberger, D. Thompson

  "Silk," originally from China, has been known in Iran since ancient times.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ĀBRĪZAGĀN

  M. Boyce

  “the pouring of water,” name for a Zoroastrian feast; the term could be used for Tīragān and probably also for the name-day festival of Hordād, both of which were celebrated by people sprinkling one another joyfully with water.

• ĀšBRĪZĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See TĪRAGĀN.

• ABROCOMAS

  M. Dandamayev

  Persian satrap of Syria and commander under Artaxerxes II.

• ABROCOMES

  M. Dandamayev

  a son of Darius I by Phrataguna, daughter of his brother Artanes.

• ĀBŠĪNA HAMADĀN RŪD

  E. Ehlers

  name of a drainage system that covers several streams and small rivers along the eastern flank of the Alvand Kūh; it flows north into the kavīr of Qom.

• ĀBŠŪR RŪD

  E. Ehlers

  “salt river.” The name ābšūr is very common in Iran for those rivers with a high salt content.

• ĀBTĪN

  A. Tafażżolī

  father of the mythical king Feridun of the Pišdādi dynasty.

• ABŪ ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SOLAMĪ

  S. Sh. Kh. Hussaini

  (325-412/937-1021), Sufi, traditionist, and hagiographer.

• ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH B. AL-BAYYEʿ

  R. W. Bulliet

  a noted traditionist and local historian, b. 321/933, d. 405/1014.

• ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH YAʿQŪB

  D. Sourdel

  vizier of the ʿAbbasid caliph Mahdī (r. 158-69/775-85).

• ABŪ AḤMAD B. ABĪ BAKR KĀTEB

  C. E. Bosworth

  poet and official of the Samanids, fl. first half of the 4th/10th century.

• ABŪ AḤMAD MONAJJEM

  A. E. Khairallah

  (241/855-56 to 13 Rabīʿ I 300/29 October 912), literary historian, music theorist, poet, and Muʿtazilite, boon companion to caliphs Mowaffaq, Moʿtażed, and Moktafī.

• ABŪ ʿALĪ AḤMAD B. ŠĀḎĀN

  C. E. Bosworth

  governor (ʿamīd) of Balḵ and northern Afghanistan under the Saljuq ruler of Khorasan, Čaḡrī Beg Dāʾūd, and then under his son, Alp Arslan.

• ABŪ ʿALĪ BALḴĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  author of a Šāh-nāma, according to Bīrūnī (Āṯār al-bāqīa, pp. 99f.).

• ABŪ ʿALĪ DĀMḠĀNĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  vizier of the Samanids in the last years of their power.

• ABŪ ʿALĪ DAQQĀQ

  J. Chabbi

  ascetic of Nīšāpūr (d. 405/1015).

• ABŪ ʿALĪ FĀRESĪ

  I. Abbas

  (288-377/900-87), grammarian at the court of the Buyid ʿAżod-al-dawla (d. 366/977).

• ABŪ ʿALĪ MESKAVAYH

  Cross-Reference

  Persian chancery official and treasury clerk of the Buyid period, boon companion, litterateur and accomplished writer in Arabic on a variety of topics, including history, theology, philosophy and medicine (d. 421/1030). See MESKAVAYH, ABU ʿALI AḤMAD.

• ABŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR

  Kh. A. Nizami

  (also known as SHAH BŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR), Indian poet and saint, d. 725/1324. His mausoleum at Panipat remains a popular center for pilgrimage.

• ABŪ ʿAMR AL-MĀZOLĪ

  J. van Ess

  Karrāmī theologian, fl. mid-4th/mid-10th century.

• ABŪ ʿAṬĀ

  G. Tsuge

  one of the twelve modes in the dastgāh system of classical Iranian music; more precisely, it should be called āvāz-e Abū ʿAṭā or naḡma-ye Abū ʿAṭā.

• ABŪ ʿAWĀNA

  J. A. Wakin

  a Shafeʿite legal scholar and traditionist.

• ABŪ ʿAWN

  R. W. Bulliet

  a distinguished ʿAbbasid general, twice governor of Egypt and once of Khorasan.

• ABŪ BAKR AL-WARRĀQ

  B. Reinert

  Sufi shaikh, born in Termeḏ, lived and worked in Balḵ, d. 280/893.

• ABŪ BAKR B. ABĪ ṢĀLEḤ

  C. E. Bosworth

  vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century.

• ABŪ BAKR B. PAHLAVĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See ATĀBAKĀN-E ĀḎARBĀYJĀN.

• ABŪ BAKR B. SAʿD

  B. Spuler

  (623-58/1226-60), member of the Salghurid dynasty, atabeg of Fārs.

• ABŪ BAKR ḤAṢĪRĪ

  Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

  Shafeʿite faqīh (jurist) and Ghaznavid official, d. 424/1033.

• ABŪ BAKR KALĀBĀḎĪ

  W. Madelung

  author of the well-known compendium of Sufism al-Taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwof.

• ABŪ BAKR MARVAZĪ

  A. A. Ivanov

  7th/13th century metalworker.

• ABŪ BAKR NAYSĀBŪRĪ

  M. J. McDermott

  a jurist loosely belonging to the Shafeʿite school.

• ABŪ BAKR QOHESTĀNĪ

  Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

   fl. 5th/11th century, a courtier and man of letters under the Ghaznavids and Saljuqs; himself a poet, he patronized poetry generously.

• ABŪ BAKR SAMARQANDĪ

  I. Abbas

  (d. 268/881), a Hanafite jurist about whose life the available sources furnish no information.

• ABŪ BAKR SARAḴSĪ

  J. W. Clinton

  a follower (but apparently not a contemporary) of Shaikh Abū Saʿīd b. Abi’l-Ḵayr (d. 440/1049).

• ABŪ BAKR ṬŪSĪ ḤAYDARĪ

  B. Lawrence

  7th/13th century Indo-Muslim saint.

• ABŪ ḎARR BŪZJĀNĪ

  M. N. Osmanov

  a Persian poet and Sufi shaikh contemporary with Sebüktigin (d. 387/997).

• ABŪ ḎARR HERAVĪ

  J. A. Wakin

  a traditionist known primarily for his role in the transmission of Boḵārī’s Jāmeʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ.

• ABŪ DOLAF AL-YANBŪʿĪ

  R. W. Bulliet

  Arab traveler, poet, and frequenter of the Buyid court (ca. mid-4th/10th century).

• ABŪ DOLAF ʿEJLĪ

  F. M. Donner

  Arab military chieftain, author, poet, governor, and boon companion for several ʿAbbasid caliphs, and most important member of the ʿEǰlī dynasty of western Iran, flourished in the early 3rd/9th century.

• ABŪ ʿEKREMA

  D. M. Dunlop

  a freedman of Banū Ḥamdān, regarded as the first ʿAbbasid propagandist in Khorasan.

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ AL-ŠĪRĀZĪ

  W. Madelung

  Shafeʿite jurist, b. 393/1003 in Fīrūzābād in Fār.

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ AṬʿEMA

  Cross-Reference

  (d. 1420s) satirical poet who used Persian culinary vocabulary and imagery and kitchen terminology to create a novel style of poetry. See BOSḤĀQ AṬʿEMA.

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM

  C. E. Bosworth

  governor of Ḡazna in eastern Afghanistan on behalf of the Samanids (352/963-355/966).

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ ĪNJŪ

  J. W. Limbert

  (721-58/1321-59), ruler of Fārs, ʿErāq ʿAǰam (Isfahan), and parts of southern Iran, 743-55/1343-54.

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ KĀZARŪNĪ

  B. Lawrence

  Sufi and eponymous founder of the Kāzarūnīya/Esḥāqīya order.

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ NAẒẒĀM

  J. van Ess

  famous adīb and Muʿtazilite theologian.

• ABŪ ESḤĀQ ŠĀMĪ

  Mutiul Imam

  founder and eminent early saint of the Češtī order (3rd-4th/9th-10th century).

• ABŪ ḤAFṢ ḤADDĀD

  J. Chabbi

  an ascetic who was born and lived in Nīšāpūr, d. between 265/874 and 270/879.

• ABŪ ḤAFṢ SOḠDĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  one of the so-called “first poets” in New Persian.

• ABŪ ḤĀMED TORKA

  Fazlur Rahman

  scholar and author of the late 7th/13th and early 8th/14th centuries, the first in a line of prominent men of the Torka-ye Eṣfahānī family.

• ABŪ ḤAMZA ḴORĀSĀNĪ

  B. Reinert

  (d. 290/903), Sufi born and active in Nīšāpūr.

• ABŪ ḤANĪFA

  U. F. ʿAbd-Allāh

  (80-150/699-767), eponym of the Ḥanafī school of Islamic law—the largest of the four primary Sunni schools of law

• ABŪ ḤANĪFA ESKĀFĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ESKĀFĪ, ABŪ ḤANĪFA.

• ABŪ HĀŠEM ʿABDALLĀH

  T. Nagel

   ʿAlid figure in Shiʿite tradition.

• ABŪ ḤĀTEM RĀZĪ

  H. Halm

  Ismaʿili dāʿī (missionary) and author of the 4th/10th century.

• ABŪ ḤAYYĀN TAWḤĪDĪ

  W. M. Watt

  an outstanding man of letters and essayist of the Buyid period.

• ABŪ ʿĪSĀ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  J. Lassner

  founder of the ʿĪsāwīya, an obscure Jewish sect in Islamic times.

• ABŪ ʿĪSĀ WARRĀQ

  W. M. Watt

  heretical theologian of the 3rd/9th century.

• ABŪ JAʿFAR B. AḤMAD

  D. Pingree

  mid- to late 3rd/9th century astronomer, son of a famous astronomer from Marv.

• ABŪ JAʿFAR ḴĀZEN

  D. Pingree

  astronomer (ca. 287/900-probably 360/970).

• ABŪ ḴĀLĪJĀR ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪN MARZBĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪN MARZBĀN.

• ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR GARŠĀSP (I)

  C. E. Bosworth

  second son of the Kakuyid amir of Jebāl, ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla Moḥammad b. Došmanzīār, ruled in Hamadān and parts of what are now Kurdistan and Luristan, 433-37/1041-42 to 1045, d. 443/1051-52.

• ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR GARŠĀSP (II)

  C. E. Bosworth

  member of the Dailamite dynasty of the Kakuyids (d. 536/1141?).

• ABŪ LOʾLOʾA

  Ch. Pellat

  a Persian slave of Moḡīra b. Šoʿba, the governor of Baṣra, who assassinated the caliph ʿOmar b. al-Ḵaṭṭāb, on Wednesday, 26 Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa 23/2 November 644.

• ABŪ MANṢŪR ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  a dehqān (landowner) of Ṭūs, official under the Samanids, and patron of a lost prose Šāh-nāma (Šāh-nāma-ye Abū Manṣūrī).

• ABŪ MANṢŪR FARĀMARZ

  C. E. Bosworth

  eldest son of the Kakuyid amir of Jebāl, ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla Moḥammad b. Došmanzīār.

• ABŪ MANṢŪR HERAVĪ

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  (fl. ca. 370-80/980-90), author of the oldest preserved Persian text on materia medica, Ketāb al-abnīa ʿan ḥaqāʾeq al-adwīa.

• ABŪ MANṢŪR MAʿMARĪ

  Dj. Khalegi-Motlagh

  minister (dastūr) of Abū Manṣūr b. ʿAbd-al-Razzāq (d. 350/961), a military commander of Khorasan under the Samanids.

• ABŪ MANṢŪR ṬŪSĪ

  D. Pingree

  mathematician.

• ABŪ MAʿŠAR

  D. Pingree

  astronomer and astrologer, born in Balḵ on 20 Ṣafar 171/10 August 787. 

• ABŪ MOSLEM EṢFAHĀNĪ

  Wilferd Madelung

  secretary, official, man of letters, and Muʿtazilite Koran commentator, b. 254/868, probably in Isfahan.

• ABŪ MOSLEM ḴORĀSĀNĪ

  Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

  prominent leader in the ʿAbbasid cause. 

• ABŪ MOṬĪʿ AL-BALḴĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  faqīh, judge, and traditionist, disciple of Abū Ḥanīfa, died 183/799 in Balḵ.

• ABU MUSĀ i - ii

  E. Ehlers

  island in the Persian Gulf.

• ABU MUSĀ iii

  Guive Mirfendereski

  (Bu Musā), a small island in the eastern Persian Gulf (25°52′ N, 55°2′ E).

• ABŪ MŪSĀ AŠʿARĪ

  G. R. Hawting

  a Companion of the Prophet and important participant in the troubles which occupied the caliphate of ʿAlī. 

• ABŪ MŪSĀ MORDĀR

  J. van Ess

  theologian and ascetic, early representative of the Baghdad branch of the Moʿtazela (d. 226/840-41).

• ABŪ NAṢR AḤMAD

  C. E. Bosworth

  Samanid amir in Transoxania and Khorasan (295-301/907-14).

• ABŪ NAṢR AL-ESMĀʿĪLĪ

  W. M. Watt

  an alleged teacher of Abū Ḥāmed Ḡazālī (450-505/1058-1111).

• ABŪ NAṢR FĀMĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  (472-546/1079-1151), local historian of Herat in the Saljuq period.

• ABŪ NAṢR FĀRĀBĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See FĀRĀBĪ, ABŪ NAṢR.

• ABŪ NAṢR FĀRSĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  Official, soldier and poet of the Ghaznavid empire, flourished in the second half of the 5th/11th century during the reigns of the sultans Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd I and Masʿūd III b. Ebrāhīm.

• ABŪ NAṢR MANṢŪR

  D. Pingree

  mathematician and astronomer, born probably in Gīlān about 349/960.

• ABŪ NAṢR MOŠKĀN

  H. Moayyad

  head of the Ghaznavid chancery under Maḥmūd and Masʿūd from 401/1011-12 till his death in 431/1039-40.

• ABŪ NAṢR MOSTAWFĪ

  K. A. Luther

  well-known official of the Saljuqs of Iraq.

• ABŪ NAṢR ʿOTBĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿOTBĪ, ABŪ NAṢR.

• ABŪ NOʿAYM AL-EṢFAHĀNĪ

  W. Madelung

  famous traditionist and author of the collection of Sufi biographies Ḥelyat al-awlīāʾ.

• ABŪ ʿOBAYDA MAʿMAR

  C. E. Bosworth

  Arabic philologist and grammarian (probably 110-209/728-824, but the sources have other, slightly different dates).

• ABŪ ʿOṮMĀN RABĪʿA

  L. A. Giffen

  often called RABĪʿAT-AL-RAʾY, important lawyer of the ancient school of Medina and transmitter of Traditions from Companions of the Prophet, died 136/753. 

• ABŪ RAJĀʾ ḠAZNAVĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ḠAZNAVĪ, ABŪ RAJĀʾ.

• ABŪ RAŠĪD NĪSĀBŪRĪ

  D. W. Madelung

  Muʿtazilite scholar. He was probably born not later than 360/970.

• ABŪ SAʿD TOSTARĪ

  S. D. Goitein

  businessman and quasi-vizier in Fatimid Egypt, d. 439/1047.

• ABŪ SAHL ḤAMDOWĪ

  Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

  Ghaznavid official of the 4th-5th/11th century.

• ABŪ SAHL ḴOJANDĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. 

• ABŪ SAHL KŪHĪ

  D. Pingree

  (also QŪHĪ), mathematician and astronomer.

• ABŪ SAHL LAKŠAN

  Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

   official under the Ghaznavid amirs Maḥmūd (388-421/998-1030) and Masʿūd (421-32/1031-41).

• ABŪ SAHL NAWBAḴT

  D. Pingree

  2nd/8th century astrologer and author.  

• ABŪ SAHL NAWBAḴTĪ

  W. Madelung

  a prominent member of the Nawbaḵtī family and noted Imamite leader and scholar.

• ABŪ SAHL ZŪZANĪ

  Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

  courtier and official under the Ghaznavid amirs Maḥmūd (388-421/998-1030) and Masʿūd (421-32/1031-41), d. ca. 440-50/1050-59.

• ABŪ SAʿĪD ABI’L-ḴAYR

  G. Böwering

  famous Iranian mystic, born 1 Moḥarram 357/7 December 967 at Mēhana, a small town in Khorasan, about fifty miles west of Saraḵs, and died there 4 Šaʿbān 440/12 January 1049.

• ABŪ SAʿĪD BAHĀDOR KHAN

  P. Jackson

  ninth Il-khan of Iran, the son and successor of Öljeitü (Ūlǰāytū).

• ABŪ SAʿĪD JANNĀBĪ

  W. Madelung

  founder of the Qarmaṭī state in Baḥrain (b. between 230/845, and 240/855, d. 300/913 or 301/913-14). 

• ABŪ SAʿĪD KHAN

  Y. Bregel

  cousin of Šaybānī Khan and great-grandson of Uluḡ Beg in the female line, khan of the Uzbeks of Transoxania (936-40/1530-33).  

• ABŪ ŠAKŪR BALḴĪ

  G. Lazard

  poet of the Samanid period.

• ABŪ SALAMA ḴALLĀL

  R. W. Bulliet

  head of the Hashemite propaganda organization (daʿwa) that sparkled the ʿAbbasid revolution and first vizier of the new dynasty. 

• ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ MANṢŪR

  C. E. Bosworth

  Samanid prince, the cousin of the amir Aḥmad b. Esmāʿīl (295-301/907-14) and uncle of his successor Naṣr b. Aḥmad (301-31/914-43).

• ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ MANṢŪR (I) NŪḤ

  C. E. Bosworth

  (350-66/961-76), Samanid ruler in Transoxania and Khorasan and successor of his brother ʿAbd-al-Malek after the latter’s death in Šawwāl, 350/November, 961.

• ABŪ SALĪK GORGĀNĪ

  M. N. Osmanov

  Persian poet, contemporary of ʿAmr b. Layṯ the Saffarid (265-88/879-901). 

• ABŪ ŠOʿAYB HERAVĪ

  J. W. Clinton

  or BŪ ŠOʿAYB as he is more commonly known, one of the many poets of the Samanid court which has survived virtually in name only.

• ABŪ ŠOJĀʿ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  H. Halm

  (434-500/1042-43 to 1106, Shafeʿite jurist. 

• ABŪ ŠOJĀʿ FANĀ ḴOSROW

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿAŻOD-AL-DAWLA.

• ABŪ ṬĀHER

  O. Watson

  designation of a family of leading potters from Kāšān, known through four generations (602-734/1205-1333). 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ABŪ ṬĀHER B. MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

  See ATĀBAKĀN-E LORESTĀN.

• ABŪ ṬĀHER ḴĀTŪNĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  officer, famous poet, and author in the reign of the Saljuq Sultan Moḥammad b. Malekšāh (498-511/1105-18).

• ABŪ TAHER ḴOSRAVĀNĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  a poet of the Samanid period.

• ABŪ ṬĀHER SAMARQANDĪ

  M. Zand

  author of a book named Ṯamarīya (first half of the 13th/19th century).

• ABŪ ṬĀLEB ḤOSAYNĪ

  Hameed ud-Din

  Mughal scholar chiefly famous for his alleged discovery of Malfūẓāt-e Tīmūrī or Wāqeʿāt-e Tīmūrī, an autobiographical account of Tīmūr from the 7th to the 74th year of his life.

• ABŪ ṬĀLEB KALĪM

  Cross-Reference

  (b. ca. 1581-85; d. 1651), Persian poet and one of the leading exponents of the “Indian style” (sabk-e hendi). See KALĪM KĀŠĀNI.

• ABŪ ṬĀLEB KHAN LANDANĪ

  M. Baqir

  Official and author in British India (18th-19th century).

• ABU ṬĀLEB TABRIZI

  ʿA. Kārang

  Poet and physician whose pen name was Ṭāleb (d. 1015/1606-07).

• ABŪ TORĀB NAḴŠABĪ

  B. Radtke

  noted 3rd/9th century ascetic.

• ABŪ TORĀB WALĪ

  S. Moinul Haq

  noble in the service of Akbar and author of Tārīḵ-e Goǰrāt, a short history of that province from the reign of Bahādor Shah (932-43/1526-36), with an account of his wars against Homāyūn, through Akbar’s conquest and up to 992/1584.

• ABU YAʿQUB HAMADĀNI

  H. Algar

  Important figure in the history of Iranian and Central Asian Sufism, largely neglected by both Iranian and Western scholarship (440-535/1048-49 to 1140).

• ABŪ YAʿQŪB JORJĀNĪ

  J. van Ess

  disciple of Ebn Karrām (d. 255/869).  

• ABŪ YAʿQŪB SEJESTĀNĪ

  P. E. Walker

  one of the most important of the early Ismaʿili dāʿīs.

• ABU YAZĪD BESṬĀMI

  Cross-Reference

  See BESṬĀMĪ, BĀYAZĪD.

• ABŪ YŪSOF QAZVINI

  W. Madelung

  Muʿtazilite scholar and author of an immense Koran commentary, born Šaʿbān, 393/June, 1003 (according to another report 391) in Qazvīn.

• ABŪ ZAYD B. MOḤAMMAD KĀŠĀNĪ

  O. Watson

  perhaps the single most important luster potter of Kāšān known to us. More signed and dated works (from 587/1191 to 616/1219) are known by him than by any other potter, and his signature occurs on a greater variety of wares, including both tiles and vessels.

• ABŪ ZAYD BALḴĪ

  W. M. Watt

  noted scholar in both Islamic and philosophical disciplines, but now known chiefly as a geographer. He was born in the village of Šāmestīān, near Balḵ in Khorasan, ca. 235/849 and died there in Ḏu’l-qaʿda, 322/October, 934. 

• ABŪ ZAYD KĀŠĀNĪ

  O. Watson

  a potter who signed a ceramic bowl in the enameled (mīnāʾī) technique dated 4 Moḥarram 582/26 March 1186.

• ABŪ ZAYN KAḤḤĀL

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  author of the medical text Šarāyeṭ-e ǰarrāḥī; its dedication to the Timurid Šāhroḵ (r. 807-50/1404-47) provides the only context for his life.

• ABU'L-KHAYRIDS

  Yuri Bregel

  name used for the dynasty that ruled the khanate of Bukhara in 906-1007/1500-99. Until recently, this dynasty was incorrectly called in Western literature “Shaybanids” (or “Shibanids”).

• ABŪZAYDĀBĀD

  E. Yarshater

  Oasis village of the province of Kāšān, called Būzābād for short and Bīzeva in the local dialect. It is situated 30 km to the east and slightly to the south of the city of Kāšān.

• ABŪZAYDĀBĀDĪ

  E. Yarshater

  (Būzābādī for short), a variety of the local dialects of Kāšān province, spoken in the village of Abūzaydābād and its farms, and belonging to the Central or Median group of Iranian dialects.

• ABU’L-ʿABBĀS ʿANBARĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿANBARĪ.

• ABU’L-ʿABBĀS MARVAZĪ

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  Sufi, jurist, and traditionist, one of the first poets to write in New Persian. 

• ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ ʿAṬĀʾ

  C. E. Bosworth

  secretary and poet of the Ghaznavid period, d. 491/1098.

• ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ GANJAVĪ

  Ż. Sajjādi

  6th/12th century poet at the court of Ḵāqān Faḵr-al-dīn Manūčehr Šervānšāh. 

• ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ HAMADĀNĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  saintly specialist in the science of Koran readings (qerāʾāt) and Tradition, born in Hamadān in 488/1090 and died in 569/1173.

• ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ ŠOŠTARĪ

  M. Zand

  early Persian poet and prosodist (the earliest known from the Šoštar area).

• ABU’L-ʿAMAYṮAL

  I. Abbas

  Tahirid court poet.

• ABU’L-ʿANBAS ṢAYMARĪ

  D. Pingree

  astrologer and author, born at Kūfa, 213/828; died 275/889. 

• ABU’L-BAQĀʾ

  H. Algar

  author of Jāmeʿ al-maqāmāt on the life of the Naqšbandī saint, Mawlānā Ḵᵛāǰagī Kāsānī (d. 949/1542), written in 1028/1618.

• ABU’L-BARAKĀT BAḠDĀDĪ

  W. Madelung

  5th-6th/11th-12th century physician and philosopher of Jewish origin, born in Balad, a town on the Tigris above Mosul.

• ABU’L-BARAKĀT LĀHŪRĪ

  M. U. Memon

  Indo-Persian poet.

• ABU’L-FARAJ BANNĀʾ

  O. Watson

  a potter known through a single signed piece reputedly found in Sāva.

• ABU’L-FARAJ ʿEBRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  (b. Malaṭīa, 1225; d. Marāḡa, 1286), Syriac historian and polymath, also known as Bar Hebraeus. See EBN AL-ʿEBRĪ, ABU’L-FARAJ.

• ABU’L-FARAJ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  K. Abū Deeb

  Author of the Ketāb al-aḡānī.

• ABU’L-FARAJ RŪNĪ

  M. Siddiqi

  an early Persian poet. Nothing is known about his birth and early life, except that he was born in Rūna, the exact location of which is uncertain.

• ABU’L-FARAJ SEJZĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  4th/10th century poet of Sīstān, author of several lost works on the art of poetry.

• ABU’L-FATḤ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  D. Pingree

  An early 6th/12th century astronomer.

• ABU’L-FATḤ ḤOSAYNĪ

  E. Glassen

  Shiʿite jurist, d. 976/1568-69.

• ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN BAḴTĪĀRĪ

  J. R. Perry

  a chieftain of the Haft Lang branch of the Baḵtīārī and paramount chief (īlḵānī) of the tribe.

• ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN JAVĀNŠĪR

  H. Busse

  son of the ruler of Qarābāḡ, Ebrāhīm Ḵalīl Khan Javānšīr, and through his sister brother-in-law of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah. 

• ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN ZAND

  H. Busse

  eldest son of Karīm Khan (Wakīl) of the Īnāq lineage of the Zand, b. 1169/1755-56.

• ABU’L-FATḤ MĪRZĀ

  H. Algar

  (d. 1330/1912), Qajar prince who held a number of governorships.

• ABU’L-FATḤ YŪSOF

  C. E. Bosworth

  Ghaznavid vizier of the early 6th/12th century.

• ABU’L-FAYŻ KAMĀL-AL-DĪN SERHENDĪ

  J. G. J. ter Harr

  author of Rawżat al-qayyūmīya, a still unpublished taḏkera of the Naqšbandīya-Moǰaddedīya order in India. 

• ABU’L-FAŻL ABŪ MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. VĀSEʿ.

• ABU’L-FAŻL ʿALLĀMĪ

  R. M. Eaton

  historian, officer, chief secretary, and confidant of the Mughal emperor Akbar I.

• ABU’L-FAŻL GOLPĀYEGĀNĪ

  M. Momen

  prominent Bahaʾi scholar and apologist.

• ABU’L-FAŻL ḴOTTALĪ

  H. Algar

  (d. 453/1061?), preceptor of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Hoǰvīrī (d. 465/1073), the author of the celebrated Persian treatise on Sufism, Kašf al-maḥǰūb.

• ABU’L-FAŻL MĪKĀL

  S. ʿA. Anwār

  author and poet, d. 436/1045.

• ABU’L-FAŻL SĀVAJĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  (1248-1312/1832-95), a scholar, calligrapher, poet, and physician active in Qajar court circles.

• ABU’L-FAŻL ŠĪRĀZĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  vizier in the time of the Buyids, patron of the Shiʿi Arab poet Ebn al-Ḥaǰǰāǰ, born in Shiraz in 303/915, died at Kūfa in 362/973.

• ABU’L-FAŻL TĀJ-AL-DĪN

  C. E. Bosworth

  amir of the line of later Saffarids, sometimes called the third dynasty of Saffarids and, by a historian like Jūzǰānī, the “Maleks of Nīmrūz and Seǰestān.”

• ABU’L-FOTŪḤ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  J. A. Wakin

  known also by his laqab Montaǰab-al-dīn (or in some sources Montaḵab-al-dīn), a well-known Shafeʿite scholar and traditionist.

• ABU’L-FOTŪḤ RĀZĪ

  M. J. McDermott

  Shiʿite commentator on the Koran who lived in the first half of the 6th/12th century.

• ABU’L-ḠĀZĪ BAHĀDOR KHAN

  B. Spuler

  khan of Ḵīva (r. 1054-74/1644 to 1663-64) and Čaḡatāy historian.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN AHWĀZĪ

  D. Pingree

  astronomer, fl. after ca. 215/830. 

• ABU’L-ḤASAN EṢFAHĀNĪ

  H. Algar

  (1284-1365/1867-1946), an Iranian moǰtahed who was a leading religious authority in the Shiʿite world for more than thirty years.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ESFARĀʾĪNĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  first vizier for the Ghaznavid sultan Maḥmūd (r. 388-421/998-1030). 

• ABU’L-ḤASAN GOLESTĀNA

  R. D. McChesney

  vizier of Kermānšāhān and chronicler of post-Afsharid Iran.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN HERAVĪ

  D. Pingree

  medieval mathematician.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN JORJĀNĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  9th-century Shafeʿite jurist, poet, and man of letters.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ḴARAQĀNĪ

  H. Landolt

  (352-425/963-1033), Sufi shaikh of Ḵaraqān, some 20 km north of Basṭām in Khorasan.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ARDALĀN

  Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

  (b. 1279/1862-63), government official under the late Qajars.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ḠAFFĀRĪ

  B. W. Robinson

  (1814-66), painter in oils and miniature, lacquer artist, and book illustrator. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ĪLČĪ

  H. Javadi

  Persian diplomat, b. 1190/1776 in Šīrāz. 

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MAḤALLĀTĪ

  H. Busse

  imam of the Nezārī Ismaʿilis of the Qāsemšāhī line, beglerbegi of Kermān under Karīm Khan Zand and his successors from approximately 1181/1768 to 1206/1791-92.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MOJTAHED

  H. Algar

  (1806-63), member of a prominent family of Shiraz who led a turbulent life alternating between government service and the cultivation of religious knowledge in a manner unusual in Qajar Iran.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN MOSTAWFĪ

  F. Gaffary

  painter and historian of the 12th/18th century from Kāšān, son of Mīrzā Moʿezz-al-dīn Moḥammad Ḡaffārī.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN NĀDER-AL-ZAMĀN

  D. Duda

  noted Mughal painter.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ŠAMSĀBĀDĪ

  H. Algar

  (1326-96/1908-76), an influential moǰtahed of Isfahan who was murdered on 7 April 1976 under mysterious circumstances.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN TAFREŠĪ

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  (1261-1323/1845 to 1905-06), medical instructor, author, and public health official in late Qajar Persia.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ṬĀLAQĀNĪ

  H. Algar

  (?-1350/1932), religious scholar and father of the celebrated Āyatallāh Maḥmūd Ṭālaqānī.

• ABU’L-HAYJĀ NAJMĪ

  Ḏ. Ṣafā

  Persian poet of the 5th-6th/11th-12th centuries.

• ABU’L-HAYṮAM GORGĀNĪ

  H. Corbin

  Ismaʿili philosopher, for a long time one of the great unknown figures in the history of Irano-Islamic philosophy.

• ABU’L-HOḎAYL AL-ʿALLĀF

  J. van Ess

  (ca. 135-227/752-841?), early Muʿtazilite theologian of universal reputation.

• ABU’L-ḤOSAYN BAṢRĪ

  D. Gimaret

  Muʿtazilite theologian and lawyer, d. 436/1044. 

• ABU’L-ḤOSAYN KĀTEB

  C. E. Bosworth

  official of the Buyids and writer in Arabic of the 4th/10th century. 

• ABU’L-JĀRŪD HAMDĀNĪ

  W. Madelung

  Kufan Shiʿite scholar and leader of the early Zaydite group named after him, the Jārūdīya.

• ABU’L-ḴAṬṬĀB ASADĪ

  A. Sachedina

  Founder of the extremist Shiʿite sect Ḵaṭṭābīya.

• ABU’L-ḴAYR B. AL-ḴAMMĀR

  W. Madelung

  Nestorian Christian physician, philosopher, theologian, and translator, b. Rabīʿ I, 331/November, 942 in Baghdad.

• ABU’L-ḴAYR KHAN

  Y. Bregel

  A descendant of Šïban (the younger son of Joči) and ruler of the Uzbek nomadic state in Dašt-e Qïpčaq in the 15th century.

• ABU’L-LAYṮ SAMARQANDĪ

  J. van Ess

  productive Hanafite jurist, author of a Koran commentary and of popular paraenetical works.

• ABU’L-MAʿĀLĪ

  J. van Ess

  Author of Bayān al-adyān, the oldest work on religions and sects written in Persian (11th-12th centuries).

• ABU’L-MAʿṢŪM MĪRZĀ

  D. Duda

  Safavid painter, portraitist, draftsman, engraver, and expert in artistic bookbinding and restoring who was extolled by the historian Qāżī Aḥmad (16th century).

• ABU’L-MAṮAL BOḴĀRĪ

  J. W. Clinton

  (or BOḴĀRĀʾĪ), a poet of the Samanid court.

• ABU’L-MOʾAYYAD BALḴĪ

  G. Lazard

  An early Persian poet and writer of the Samanid period, whose works have almost entirely disappeared.

• ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR ḴᵛĀFĪ

  H. Halm

  Shafeʿite jurist and traditionist (d. in Ṭūs in 500/1106) . He was one of the most important students of Emām-al-ḥaramayn Jovaynī.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿABDALLĀH KĀŠĀNĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Historian of the reign of the Il-khan Olǰāytū and member of the Abū Ṭāher family of potters (14th century). 

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN

  C. E. Bosworth

  Vizier to the atabeg of Lorestān Šams-al-dawla Ḡāzī Beg Aydoḡmuš (7th/13th century).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD

  R. W. Bulliet

  A wealthy dehqān from Sabzavār who was prominent as a founder of madrasas in the second decade of the 5th/11th century.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM EBRĀHĪM ḤAṢĪRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  Shafeʿite faqīh (jurist) and Ghaznavid official, d. 424/1033. See ABŪ BAKR ḤAṢĪRĪ.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM EBRĀHĪM SOLṬĀN

  EIr

  The only son of Kāmrān Mīrza, brother and rival of the Mughal emperor Homāyūn (r. 937-47, 962-63/1530-40, 1555-56).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ESḤĀQ SAMARQANDI

  W. Madelung

  Hanafite scholar, Sufi, and judge (qāżī) of Samarqand (9th-10th centuries).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM HĀRŪN

  K. A. Luther

  Vizier of Atabeg Ozbek b. Moḥammad b. Eldagōz, ruler of Azerbaijan, 607-22/1210-25.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KAʿBĪ

  J. van Ess

  Administrator and intellectual of Persian descent, Hanafite jurist and foremost representative of the Moʿtazela in Khorasan (d. Šaʿbān, 319/February, 931).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KERMĀNĪ

  D. Pingree

  Author of a Ketāb fī oṣūl al-aḥkām (“Book concerning the foundations of astrological judgments”).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KHAN EBRĀHĪMĪ

  D. MacEoin

  Fourth head of the Kermānī branch of the Šayḵī school of Shiʿism (19th-20th centuries).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KŪFĪ

  L. Giffen

  Scholar of philosophy, theology, and other disciplines who was at first an Emāmī Shiʿite but later embraced a form of extreme Shiʿism (d. near Šīrāz, 352/962).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM

  S. Moinul Haq

  (pen name MONʿEMĪ), 18th-century historian of Kashmir.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM NĀʾĪNĪ

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  Major representative (practitioner, instructor, author) of traditional medicine in late Qajar Persia (1245-1322/1829-30 to 1904-05).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM SAʿĪD

  D. Duda

  11th-century calligrapher.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM SOLṬĀN

  M. H. Pathan

  Bēglār chief of Sind, b. at Nasarpur, Sind, in 969/1562.

• ABU’L-RAYḤĀN BĪRŪNĪ

  Cross-Reference

  Scholar and polymath of the period of the late Samanids and early Ghaznavids and one of the two greatest intellectual figures of his time in the eastern lands of the Muslim world (362/973-after 442/1050). See BĪRŪNĪ, ABU’L-RAYḤĀN.

• ABU’L-RAYYĀN EṢFAHĀNĪ

  C. Cahen

  Buyid vizier (10th century).

• ABU’L-ŠAYḴ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  Cross-Reference

  Traditionist and Koran commentator, important principally for his Ṭabaqāt al-moḥaddeṯī (274-369/887-979). See EṢFAHĀNĪ, ABU’L-ŠAYḴ.

• ABU’L-TAYYEB ṬABARĪ

  J. Wakin

  Jurisconsult, judge (qāżī), and professor of legal sciences; he was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the leading Shafeʿites of 5th/11th century Baghdad.

• ABU’L-ṬAYYEB ṬĀHER

  M. Forstner

  founder of the Taherid dynasty of Khorasan; born 139/775-76 in Pūšang (Būšang), died 207/822 in Marv.

• ABU’L-WAFĀ B. SAʿID

  D. Pingree

  Author in Persian (15th century).

• ABU’L-WAFĀ BŪZJĀNI

  D. Pingree

  Mathematician and astronomer (10th-11th century).

• ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ḴᵛĀRAZMĪ

  H. Landolt

  Famous Sufi of Kobrawī affiliation, esoterist, scholar, poet, and musician (d. 835/1431-32).

• ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ŠĪRĀZĪ

  H. Algar

  Sufi of Shiraz, morīd of the well-known preacher, mystic and writer, Shah Dāʿī Elā Allāh Šīrāzī (fl. 10th/16th century).

• ABU’L-WAZIR MARVAZĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  Secretary and author (d. 186/802).

• ABU’L-YANBAḠĪ

  Y. Richard

  Iranian poet (d. 230/844).

• ABYĀNA

  E. Yarshater

  Village in the Barz-rud subdistrict (dehestan) in Naṭanz county (šahrestān).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ABYĀNAʾĪ

  E. Yarshater

  Dialect spoken in the village of Abyāna, one of a number of closely similar dialects spoken in the villages of Kāšān and its neighboring districts, all belonging to the Central Dialects of Iran (or Southern Median).

• ĀBYĀR

  E. Ehlers

  Title of the person given official charge of the irrigation of ābī “irrigated” lands.

• ĀBYĀRĪ

  B. Spooner

  Persian term meaning "irrigation." Although dry farming is important in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Khorasan, as well as some other districts, a large proportion of Iran’s agriculture has always depended upon irrigation. This article concentrates on the preindustrial forms that not only have been important in the evolution of Iranian culture and civilization but have constituted an important Iranian contribution to the development of water management systems in other parts of the world.

• ABZARĪ, ḴᵛĀJA ʿAMĪD-AL-DĪN

  A. E. Khairallah

  Poet and the vizier of the Salghurid Atabeg of Fārs Saʿd b. Zangī (594-623/1197-1226).

• ABZŌN

  M. F. Kanga

  Middle Persian term meaning “prosperity, increase” in Zoroastrianism.

• Ab~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Cross-Reference

  list of all the figure and plate images in the Ab entries