Table of Contents

  • FATALISM

    Based on a longer article by ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Zarrīnkūb

    in the Islamic period. The concept of fatalism as commonly used in Islamic philosophy and Persian literature denotes the belief in the pre-ordained Decree of God (qażā wa qadar), according to which whatever happens to human beings or in the whole universe has been pre-determined by the will and knowledge of the Almighty, and that no changes or transformations in it can be made through the agency of the human will.

  • FATĀWĪ-E ʿĀLAMGĪRĪ

    S. H. Qasemi

    abridged Persian translation by Qāżī Najm-al-Dīn Khan Kākorī of a six-volume Arabic work on Hanafite law (ed. Būlāq, 1859) considered the authoritative compendium of religious law, policy, and practice in India.

  • FATE

    Cross-Reference

    See BAḴT; FATALISM; FREE WILL.

  • FĀTEḤ, MOṢṬAFĀ

    Bāqer ʿĀqelī

    (b. Isfahan, 1896; d. London, 1978), a deputy director-general of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and banker.

  • FĀṬEMA

    Jean Calmard

    daughter of the Prophet Moḥammad.

  • FĀṬEMA-SOLṬĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See ANĪS-AL-DAWLA.

  • FĀṬEMĪ, ḤOSAYN

    Fakhreddin Azimi

    Fāṭemī protested against the government rigging of the elections for the Sixteenth Majles with Moṣaddeq, helped to mobilize support, and in October 1949 was one of a delegation selected to accompany Moṣaddeq in a sit-in (bast) at the royal palace protesting the conduct of the elections.

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  • FATḤ

    EIr

    b. ḴĀQĀN (d. 861), famous bibliophile, author, courtier, and official in ʿAbbasid times.

  • FATḤ JANG

    Mehrdad Shokoohy

    or Mīrzā Ebrāhīm (d. 1623-24), a Mughal official. 

  • FATḤ-ʿALĪ ĀḴŪNDZĀDA

    Cross-Reference

    See AḴŪNDZĀDA.

  • FATḤ-ʿALĪ KHAN AFŠAR ARAŠLŪ

    Cross-Reference

    See AFŠĀR.

  • FATḤ-ʿALĪ KHAN QĀJĀR

    ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN NAVĀʾĪ

    chief of the Ašāqa-bāš division of the Qajar tribes at Astarābād at the time of the demise of the Safavid dynasty.

  • FATḤ-ʿALĪ SHAH QĀJĀR

    Abbas Amanat

    (1769-1834), second ruler of the Qajar dynasty. He transformed a largely Turkic tribal khanship into a centralized and stable monarchy on the old imperial model which brought to the Guarded Domains of Persia (mamālek-e maḥrūsa-ye Īrān) a period of relative calm and prosperity, secured a state-religious symbiosis, and fostered a period of cultural and artistic revival.

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  • FATḤ-ALLĀH ŠĪRĀZĪ, SAYYED MĪR

    Sharif Husain Qasemi

    a famous sixteenth century Sufi, an official in Mughal India, and one of the most learned men of his time.

  • FATḤ-NĀMA

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    Arabic-Persian term used to denote proclamations and letters announcing victories in battle or the successful conclusion of military campaigns.

  • FATIMIDS

    Farhad Daftary

    relations with Persia. A major Ismaʿili Shiʿite dynasty, the Fatimids founded their own caliphate, in rivalry with the ʿAbbasids, and ruled over different parts of the Islamic world, from North Africa and Sicily to Palestine and Syria.

  • FATTĀḤĪ NĪŠĀBŪRĪ, MOḤAMMAD

    Tahsın Yazici

    b. Yaḥyā Sībak (d. 1448), Persian poet of the Timurid era, born in Nīšāpūr (hence his nesba Nīšābūrī) at an unknown date.

  • FATWĀ

    Hamid Algar

    the authoritative ruling of a religious scholar on questions of Islamic jurisprudence that are either dubious or obscure in nature or which have newly arisen without known precedent.

  • FAUNA i. FAUNA OF PERSIA

    Steven Anderson

    the assemblage of animal species, generally excluding domestic animals, living within a defined geographical area or ecological zone.

  • FAUNA ii, iii. FAUNA OF CENTRAL ASIA

    O. L. Kryzhanovskiĭ

    the assemblage of animal species, generally excluding domestic animals, living within a defined geographical area or ecological zone. OVERVIEW of the entry: i. Fauna of Persia. ii. Fauna of Afghanistan. iii. Fauna of Central Asia.

  • FAUSTUS

    James R. Russell

    fifth-century author of the Patmutʿiwn Hayocʿ (History of the Armenians) or Buzandaran.

  • FAVA BEANS

    Cross-Reference

    See BĀQELĀ.

  • FAWZĪ MOSTĀRĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See FEVZİ MOSTĀRĪ.

  • FAWZĪ, MOḤAMMAD

    Cross-Reference

    See FEVZI EFENDI.

  • FAYYĀŻ LĀHĪJĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ LĀHĪJĪ.

  • FAYYĀŻ, ʿALĪ-AKBAR MAJĪDĪ

    Jalāl Matīnī

    Fayyāż remained an indefatigable scholar all his life, combining his profound knowledge of traditional Islamic sciences and Persian literature with modern methodology in scholarship and literary criticism.

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  • FAYŻ MOḤAMMAD KĀTEB

    R. D. McChesney and A. H. Tarzi

    Afghan court chronicler and secretary to the amir Ḥabīb–Allāh Khan (r. 1901-19).

  • FAYŻ-E KĀŠĀNĪ, MOLLĀ MOḤSEN-MOḤAMMAD

    Hamid Algar

    b. Šāh Mortażā b. Šāh Maḥmūd (b. 1598-9, d. 1679), prolific and versatile scholar of the Safavid period, celebrated chiefly for his Sufi inclinations.

  • FAYŻĀBĀD

    Daniel Balland

    a toponym of auspicious meaning (“blessed abode”) which enjoys great popularity throughout the Iranian world.

  • FAYŻĪ, ABU’L-FAYŻ

    Munibur Rahman

    (b. Agra, 1547; d. Lahore, 1595), Mughal court poet, also known as Fayżī Fayyāżī, who wrote mainly in Persian.

  • FAYŻĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM

    Moojan Momen

    (1906-1980), Bahai teacher, missionary, and author.

  • FAŻĀʾEL-E BALḴ

    Arezou Azad

    13th-century local history from Balḵ in eastern Khorasan, with a collection of biographies of Balḵ’s early Islamic scholars and mystics. It differs from many other local histories of medieval Islamic cities in that it comprises a mix of historical, topographical, and prosopographical information.

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  • FĀŻEL KHAN GARRŪSĪ, MOḤAMMAD

    Īraj Afšār

    (1784-1843), poet, litterateur, and secretary during the reigns of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (1797-1834) and Moḥammad Shah Qājār (1834-48).

  • FĀŻEL MĀZANDARĀNĪ, MĪRZĀ ASAD-ALLĀH

    Moojan Momen

    (b. Bābol, 1881; d. Ḵorramšahr, 1957), Bahai scholar and missionary.

  • FĀŻEL TŪNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN

    Hūšang Etteḥād

    From the beginning of 1934, Mohammad-Hosayn taught Arabic language and literature and Islamic philosophy at the University of Tehran; he retired in 1958. He was known for his memory, his sense of humor, and his ability to form friendships with colleagues from different disciplines.

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  • FAZEL, JAVAD

    Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

    (1914-1961), noted serial writer, and a pioneering figure in simplifying and popularizing religious texts.

  • FAŻL NAYRĪZĪ

    David Pingree

    (fl. 900 C.E.), ABU’L ʿABBĀS b. Ḥātem, mathematician and astronomer. His family originated from Nayrīz/Nīrīz, a small town near Shiraz. Almost nothing is known of his personal life. 

  • FAŻL, b. AḤMAD ESFARĀʾENĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See ESFARĀʾENĪ, FAŻL B. AḤMAD.

  • FAŻL, b. Šāḏān NĪŠĀPŪRĪ AZDĪ, ABŪ MOḤAMMAD

    Etan Kohlberg

    (d. 873), Imami traditionalist, theologian, and jurisprudent.

  • FAŻL, b. SAHL b. Zādānfarrūḵ

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    (d. 818), high official of the early ʿAbbasids and vizier to the caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 813-33).

  • FAŻL-ALLĀH ḤORŪFĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See ASTARĀBĀDĪ, FAŻLALLĀH.

  • FAŻL-ALLĀH NŪRĪ, SHAIKH

    Cross-reference

    See NŪRĪ, FAŻL-ALLĀH.

  • FAŻLĪ NAMANGĀNĪ, ʿABD-AL-KARĪM

    Michael Zand

    (d. after 1822), Central Asian bilingual poet (Persian and Chaghatay), taḏkera compiler, and historian.

  • FAŻLĪ, MEḤMED

    Tahsın Yazici

    (b. Istanbul; d. Kütahya, 1563), Moḥammad or ʿAlī ÇAĞDAŞLAN; Turkish poet, known also as Qara Fażlī.

  • FAŻLŪYA DYNASTY

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀL-E FAŻLŪYA.

  • FAŻLŪYA, Amir ABU’L-ʿABBĀS FAŻL

    ʿAbd-Allāh Mardūḵ

    known also as Neẓām-al-Dīn Fażl-Allāh, chief of the Šabānkāra Kurds in Fārs during the 11th century.

  • FEDĀʾĪ

    Farhad Daftary

    or fedāwī; devotee, a person who offers his life for others or in the service of a particular cause.

  • FEDĀʾĪ ḴORĀSĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD

    Farhad Daftary

    b. Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn b. Karbalāʾī Dāwūd (b. ca. 1850; d. 1923), foremost Persian Nezārī Ismaʿili author and poet of modern times, who is referred to as Ḥājī Āḵūnd in the Persian Nezārī community.

  • FEDĀʾĪĀN-E ESLĀM

    FARHAD KAZEMI

    a Shiʿite fundamentalist group with a strong activist political orientation founded in 1945 by a charismatic figure, Sayyed Mojtabā Mīrlawḥī (1923-55).

  • FEHİM SÜLEYMAN EFENDİ

    Tahsın Yazici

    or FAHĪM SOLAYMĀN (b. Istanbul, 1789; d. 1846), a Persian teacher and poet of Turkish origin.

  • FEHREST

    Rudolf Sellheim and Mohsen Zakeri, François de Blois, Werner Sundermann

    or Ketāb al-fehrest; a celebrated catalogue of books in Arabic, drafted in 987 by Ebn al-Nadīm. Some scholars regard him as a Persian, but this is not certain. However, his choice of a rather rare Persian word for the title of a handbook on Arabic literature is noteworthy.

  • FEKETE, Lajos

    ANDRÁS BODROGLIGETI

    (1891-1969), Hungarian historian and specialist of Turkish-Persian paleography.

  • FELĀḤAT-E MOẒAFFARĪ

    Nassereddin Parvin

    the first monthly magazine in Persia dealing with agricultural issues published from August 1900 to Noveber 1907; the official publication of the General Agricultural Office of Persia.

  • FELFEL

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    modern Persian term designating the fruits and/or berries of two botanically different groups of plants: the pepper proper and the capsicum peppers.

  • FELT

    Daniel Balland and Jean-Pierre Digard

    (namad), material produced by process of felting, the entanglement of animal fiber in all directions, done to form a soft and homogeneous mass. The technique was originally devised in nomadic communities of Central Asia (Pazyryk, 5th to 3rd centuries BCE).

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  • FEMINIST MOVEMENTS i. INTRODUCTION, ii. IN THE LATE QAJAR PERIOD

    EIr, Janet Afary

    Persia of the 20th century saw a number of popular, often small and short-lived, women’s rights activities which had been mobilized in the 1900s-1920s and again in the 1940s-50s.

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  • FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iii. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD

    Hamideh Sedghi

    in the Pahlavi Period. The fundamental political, socio-cultural, and economic changes which Persia underwent in the Pahlavi era (1921-78) had drastic repercussions on the women’s rights movement and the condition of women.

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  • FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iv. IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

    Ziba Mir-Hosseini

    After the Revolution of 1978-79, “feminism,” because of its associations with the West and its appropriation by the previous regime, soon became viewed by the ruling clerics as synonymous with decadence.

  • FENDERESK

    Mīnū Yūsofnežād

    a rural district (dehestān) of the county (šahrestān) of Gonbad-e Qābūs and situated north of the Alborz range in the eastern part of Māzandarān.

  • FENDERESKĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See MĪR FENDERESKI, ABU’L-QĀSEM.

  • FENNEL

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    the aromatic sweetish potherb and medicinal plant Foeniculum vulgare Mill. (= Anethum foeniculum L., etc.; fam. Umbelliferae).

  • FEQH

    Norman Calder

    lit. "jurisprudence"; term used to designate the processes of exposition, analysis, and argument which constitute human effort to express God’s law (šarīʿa).

  • FERDAWS AL-MORŠEDĪYA FĪ ASRĀR AL-ṢAMADĪYA

    Īraj Afšār

    a major hagiography of Abū Esḥāq Kāzarūnī (963-1033), a famous Sufi and founder of a selsela variously referred to as Kāzarūnīya, Esḥāqīya, or Moršedīya.

  • FERDOWS

    Baqer Parham

    šahrestān in Khorasan consisting of three administrative districts: the city of Ferdows and its immediate suburbs, Bošrūya and Sarāyān.

  • FERDOWSĪ MAGAZINE

    Esmail Nooriala

    the name of two periodicals, a bi-monthly and a weekly magazine published in Tehran.

  • FERDOWSI, ABU'L-QĀSEM

    Multiple Authors

    (940-1019 or 1025), one of the greatest epic poets and author of the Šāh-nāma, the national epic of Persia.

  • FERDOWSI, ABU'L-QĀSEM i. Life

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    Apart from his patronymic (konya), Abu’l-Qāsem, and his pen name (taḵallosá), Ferdowsī, nothing is known with any certainty about his names or the identity of his family.

  • FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM ii. Hajw-nāma

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    Hajw-nāma is the title of a verse lampoon of Sultan Maḥmūd of Ḡazna attributed to Ferdowsī. According to Neẓāmī ʿArūżī, after Ferdowsī presented his Šāh-nāma, the sultan used the pretext of the poet’s alleged Muʿtazilite and Shiʿite orientation to give him only twenty thousand dirhams as the reward for the epic.

  • FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM iii. MAUSOLEUM

    A. Shahpur Shahbazi

    The rise of nationalism in Persia early this century motivated scholars and dignitaries to urge the government to build a suitable mausoleum for the poet who had done so much to preserve Iranian identity and history. 

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  • FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM iv. MILLENARY CELEBRATION

    A. Shahpur Shahbazi

    Already in 1922 Moḥammad-Taqī Bahār, the most influential poet of the time and a politician-journalist, urged Reżā Khan (later Reżā Shah), who had recently seized power, to prove his asserted nationalism by celebrating Ferdowsī.

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  • FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM v. HOMAGES TO FERDOWSI

    EIr

    Ever since the appearance of the Šāh-nāma, Ferdowsī has been held in high esteem, and many poets have referred to him and his work, the best known being Saʿdī’s tribute in the Būstān to “Ferdowsī-ye pāk-zād.” 

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  • FERİDUN AḤMED BEG, ʿABD-AL-QĀDER

    Rudolf Vesel

    or FEREYDŪN AḤMAD BAYG (d. 1583), Ottoman secretary, administrator, head of the chancery, and author.

  • FERĒDŪN

    Aḥmad Tafażżolī

    Iranian mythic hero.

  • FEREŠTA

    Cross-Reference

    angels in Islam and Persian folklore. See Supplement, ANGELS.

  • FEREŠTA, MOḤAMMAD-QĀSEM

    Cross-Reference

    See FEREŠTA, TĀRĪḴ-E.

  • FEREŠTA,TĀRĪḴ-E

    Gavin R. G. Hambly

    popular title of Golšan-e ebrāhīmī, a general history of Muslim India by Moḥammad-Qāsem Hendušāh Astarābādī (b. Astarābād ca. 1570), the celebrated historian of the Deccan known by the pen name (taḵalloṣ) of Ferešta.

  • FEREYDŪN

    Cross-reference

    (Faridun, Fereydoun, Fereydoon) Iranian mythic hero. See FERĒDŪN.

  • FERŌD

    Cross-Reference

    See FORŪD.

  • FERQA-YE DEMOKRĀT-E ĀḎARBĀYJĀN

    Forthcoming

    Democratic Party of Azerbaijan; the dominant political party in Azarbayjan during the Pīšavarī period. See Supplement.

  • FERRIER, JOSEPH PHILIPPE

    Jacqueline Calmard-Compas

    (1811-1886), French soldier in the Persian service (1839-42, 1846-50).

  • FERRIER, JOSEPHE-PIERRE

    Gavin R. G. Hambly

    19th-century French traveler and intrepid explorer in Afghanistan.

  • FERTILITY AND MORTALITY

    Mehdi Amani

    in Persia. Up to 1986 the Persian birthrate was high (as high as 48-49 per 1,000), compared to the world rate but had dropped from 1966, as a result of official policies on family planning.  In 1994 the Persian birthrate equaled the average for Asia and Central America.

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  • FESANJĀN

    Etrat Elahi

    (fesenjūn, fasūjan), a well known Persian dish (ḵoreš, a kind of stew) made of walnut or almond, poultry (usually duck) or small meat balls (kalla gonješkī) and pomegranate sauce or juice.

  • FESTIVALS

    Multiple Authors

    This article discusses religious or communal festivals and commemorations, ancient and modern, of diverse communities in Persia and Afghanistan.

  • FESTIVALS i. ZOROASTRIAN

    Mary Boyce

    fall into two broad categories. There are the seven feasts of obligation, that is, No Rōz (Nowrūz) and the six gāhānbārs, which formed the framework of the religious year, and which it was a sin not to keep; and others, which it was a merit, not a duty, to observe.

  • FESTIVALS ii. MANICHEAN

    Werner Sundermann

    The Manichean calendar of holidays proves independence from that of the Zoroastrians. Even if the heptavalent number of the Manichean Yimkis was correlated to the Zoroastrian gāhānbār and Nowrūz

  • FESTIVALS iii, iv, v

    Anne H. Betteridge and EIr, Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Keith Hitchins

    iii. SHI'ITE, iv. YAZIDI AND AHL-E HAQQ, v. KURDISH (SUNNI).

  • FESTIVALS vi, vii, viii

    Moojan Momen, Amnon Netzer, A. Arkun

    vi. BAHAI, vii. JEWISH, viii. ARMENIAN.

  • FESTIVALS ix. Assyrian

    WILLIAM PIROYAN and EDEN NABY

    The adoption of Christianity by the Assyrians in the latter part of the 1st century led to the harmonization of older community celebrations and commemorations with Christian doctrine as well as the introduction of specifically Christian religious holidays.

  • FESTIVALS x. IN AFGHANISTAN

    NANCY HATCH DUPREE

    Festive ceremonies in Afghanistan mark special religious days and major events in individual life cycles. Few are formally organized, being celebrated primarily to keep family bonds strong and community ties congenial.

  • FEṬR

    Cross-Reference

    See FESTIVALS iii.

  • FEṬRAT ZARDŪZ SAMARQANDĪ, SAYYED KAMĀL

    Michael Zand

    (1660-1699), Tajik poet.

  • FEṬRAT, ʿABD-AL-RAʾŪF BOḴĀRĪ

    Habib Borjian

    (b. Bukhara, ca. 1886; d. Tashkent, 1938), teacher, man of letters, and the most important thinker of the Jadid movement of modern Central Asia.

  • FETYĀN

    Cross-reference

    See ʿAYYĀR; JAVĀNMARDI.

  • FEUDALISM

    Cross-Reference

    European term sometimes applied to medieval Persia; see EQṬĀʿ.

  • FEUVRIER, JEAN-BAPTISTE

    Jean Calmard

    (1842-1926), Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah’s personal physician (1889-1892), author of Trois ans à la cour de Perse, with engravings from photographs in the collections of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah and his retinue, Feuvrier’s own drawings, and Persian contemporary paintings. 

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  • FEVZİ EFENDİ, MEḤMED

    Tahsın Yazici

    or FAWZĪ (b. Denizli, 1826; d. Istanbul, 1900), Ottoman author who wrote some books in Persian.

  • FEVZİ MOSTĀRĪ

    Hamid Algar

    or FAWZĪ (d. 1747), author of the Bolbolestān, an imitation of Saʿdī’s Golestān, the only prose work written in Persian known to be by a Bosnian author.

  • FEYLĪ

    Pierre Oberling

    group of Lor tribes located mainly in Luristan.

  • FEYLĪ DIALECT

    Cross-Reference

    See LORĪ.