Table of Contents

  • AMA

    M. Boyce

    a minor Zoroastrian divinity, the hypostasis of strength, who appears in the Avestan hymn to Vərəθraγna (Yt. 14).

  • AʿMĀ

    I. Abbas

    7th-8th century poet from Azerbaijan who wrote in Arabic.

  • AMAHRASPAND

    Cross-Reference

    See AMƎŠA SPƎNTA.

  • AMAL AL-ĀMEL

    J. van Ess

    biographical dictionary of Shiʿite (Etnāʿašarī) scholars originating from the Jabal ʿĀmel in south Lebanon, composed by Moḥammad b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī Mašḡarī, known as Ḥorr-e ʿĀmelī (1033-1104/1624-1693).

  • ʿAMALA

    P. Oberling

    (literally: workers, retainers), the retinue of a tribal chief, and the name of a number of tribes.

  • AMĀMA

    Abu’l-Qāsem Tafażżolī

    (also ʿAmāma), a village in the Lavāsān district at a distance of 39 km north of Tehran, located in a mountainous area 2,230 m above sea level.

  • ʿAMĀMA

    H. Algar

    (or ʿAMMĀMA, Arabic ʿEMĀMA), the turban. Imbued with symbolic significance, the turban was once the almost universal headgear of adult male Muslims. 

  • AMĀN-E AFḠĀN

    I. V. Pourhadi

    newspaper of Afghanistan during the reign of King Amānallāh (1337-48/1919-29). 

  • AMĀNALLĀH

    L. B. Poullada

    (1892-1961), ruler of Afghanistan (1919-29), first with the title of amir and from 1926 on with that of shah.  

  • AMĀNAT

    M. Baqir

    12th/18th century poet in Persian who imitated the style of his teacher, Mīrzā ʿAbd-al-Qāder Bīdel.

  • AMĀNAT KHAN ŠĪRĀZĪ

    W. E. Begley

    When Shah Jahān’s wife Momtāz Maḥall died in childbirth (17 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 1040/17 June 1631), ʿAbd-al-Ḥaqq was appointed to select the Koranic passages and design the calligraphy for her tomb. One year later, the emperor honored him with the title Amānat Khan and promoted him to the manṣab rank of 900.

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  • AMĀNI

    Fabrizio Speziale

    pen name of Amān-Allāh Khan, Ḵān-e Zamān, an Indo-Muslim physician and author of works on medicine (d. 1637).

  • ʿAMʿAQ BOḴARĀʾĪ

    J. Matīnī

    Having attained a degree of literary prowess in his home of Bokhara he went to the Qarakhanid court in Samarkand in 460/1068.

  • ĀMĀR

    Cross-Reference

    See DEMOGRAPHY.

  • AMAR NĀTH

    B. Ahmad

    Persian writer and poet of the Punjab under the Sikhs (1822-67).

  • ʿAMĀRA MARVAZĪ

    J. Matīnī

    Persian poet of the late Samanid/early Ghaznavid periods.

  • AMARANTH

    Cross-Reference

    See BOSTĀNAFRŪZ.

  • ĀMĀRGAR

    D. N. MacKenzie, M. L. Chaumont

    a Middle and New Persian word designating a person holding a particular administrative post.

  • AʿMAŠ, ABŪ MOḤAMMAD

    E. Kohlberg

    SOLAYMĀN B. MEḤRĀN ASADĪ (in some sources, erroneously, Azdī) KĀHELĪ KŪFĪ, 1st-2nd/7th-8th century Shiʿite scholar, traditionist, and Koran reader.

  • AMASYA, PEACE OF

    M. Köhbach

    (8 Raǰab 962/29 May 1555), treaty signed between Iran and the Ottomans and observed for some twenty years.

  • AMATUNI

    C. Toumanoff

    Armenian dynastic house, known historically after the 4th century CE.

  • AMAZONS

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    designation of a fabulous race of female warriors in Greek beliefs, writings, and art, fancifully explained as a-mazos (breastless or full-breasted).

  • AMAZONS IN THE IRANIAN WORLD

    Adrienne Mayor

    Women warriors who gloried in fighting, hunting, and exercised sexual freedom in Persian literature and Iranian history and culture.

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  • ĀMED

    Cross-Reference

    See AMIDA.

  • ĀMEDĪ

    E. Kohlberg

    6th/12th century traditionist.

  • ʿĀMEL

    C. E. Bosworth

    the holder of an administrative office in the pre-modern Islamic world.

  • ʿĀMELĪ EṢFAHĀNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See AḤMAD ʿALAWĪ.

  • ʿĀMELĪ EṢFAHĀNĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN

    H. Corbin

    Shiʿite theologian and author (d. Najaf, 1138/1726). 

  • ʿĀMELĪ, ʿABD-AL-MONʿEM

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿABD-AL-MONʿEM ʿĀMELĪ.

  • ʿĀMELĪ, BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN

    Cross-Reference

    See BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN ʿĀMELĪ.

  • AMƎRƎTĀT

    Cross-Reference

    See AMURDĀD.

  • ʿĀMERĪ NĪŠĀPŪRĪ

    H. Corbin

    (d. 381/992), important philosopher from Khorasan between Fārābī and Avicenna. 

  • AMƎŠA SPƎNTA

    M. Boyce

    an Avestan term for beneficent divinity, meaning literally “Holy/Bounteous Immortal” (Pahl. Amešāspand, [A]mahraspand).

  • AMESTRIS

    R. Schmitt

    no. 4. Niece of of Darius III, d. ca. 280 BCE. She was married to the Macedonian general Craterus, then to the tyrant Dionysius in Bithynia, and to Lysimachus, king of Thrace, before ruling alone in Paphlagonia.

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  • ʿAMĪD, ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH

    C. E. Bosworth

    known as Kolah (said to be an opprobrious term), secretary and official in northern Persia and Transoxania during the 4th/10th century.

  • ʿAMĪD-AL-DĪN ASʿAD

    Cross-Reference

    See ABZARĪ.

  • ʿAMĪD-AL-DĪN SANĀMĪ

    M. U. Memon

    Persian poet of India, panegyrist of Nāṣer-al-dīn Maḥmūd (r. 644-64/1246-66) and perhaps of Ḡīāṯ-al-dīn Balban (7th/13th century).

  • ʿAMĪD-AL-MOLK

    Cross-Reference

    See ABŪ BAKR QOHESTĀNĪ.

  • ʿAMĪD-AL-MOLK ABŪ ḠĀNEM

    Cross-Reference

    See ABZARĪ.

  • AMIDA

    D. Sellwood and EIr

    Pers. Āmed (modern Dīārbakr), town situated on a plateau dominating the west bank of the upper Tigris.

  • AMĪN AḤMAD RĀZĪ

    M. U. Memon

    better known as AMĪN RĀZĪ, 10th-11th/16th-17th century author of the Haft eqlīm, a famous geographical and biographical encyclopedia.

  • AMĪN BALYĀNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See BALYĀNĪ, AMĪN-AL-DĪN.

  • AMĪN ḤAŻRAT

    J. Calmard

    eldest son of Āqā Ebrāhīm Amīn-al-solṭān who succeeded his father as Head of the royal pantry (ābdār-bašī), which allowed him to accompany Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah in all his travels in Iran and abroad.

  • AMĪN ḤOŻŪR

    J. Calmard

    (Trustee in Presence), an official title under Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah whose successive administrative reorganizations after 1858 led to a multiplication of offices, particularly in the royal household.

  • AMĪN ḴALWAT

    F. Gaffary

    (Trustee of the Shah’s private household or court), an office and title in the late Qajar period held by members of the Ḡaffārī family.

  • AMĪN LAŠKAR

    J. Calmard

    (Trustee of the Army), Qajar title held by Mīrzā ʿEnāyatallāh and Mīrzā Qahramān under Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah.

  • AMĪN LAŠKAR, MĪRZĀ QAHRAMĀN

    A. Amanat

    (1244-1310/1828-92), a middle rank Qajar official during the rule of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah.

  • AMĪN, ḤĀJJĪ

    M. Momen

    name given successively to two Bahaʾis who were trustees of the Bahaʾi system of religious taxation, the Ḥoqūq Allāh.

  • AMĪN-AL-DAWLA, ʿABDALLĀH KHAN

    A. Amanat

    ṢADR EṢFAHĀNĪ (1779-1847), chief revenue accountant and later prime minister under Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (1797-1834).

  • AMĪN-AL-DAWLA, ʿALĪ EBRĀHĪM KHAN

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿALĪ EBRĀHĪM KHAN.