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

  (d. 1054-55/ 1644-45), designer of the calligraphy on the Tāǰ Maḥall. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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).

• 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

  Greek form of an Old Persian female proper name.

• 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.

• AMĪN-AL-DAWLA, FARROḴ KHAN ḠAFFĀRĪ

  F. Gaffary

  (1227-88/1812-71), a high ranking Qajar official.