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ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ MANṢŪR B. ESḤĀQ B. AḤMAD B. ASAD SĀMĀNĪ, 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). Little is known of his personal life, except that he filled various governorships on behalf of the Samanid rulers. Esmāʿīl…

ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ MANṢŪR (I) B. NŪḤ B. NAṢR, called AL-AMĪR AL-SADĪD and AL-MALEK AL-MOẒAFFAR (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. ʿAbd-al-Malek’s reign had been filled with discord, the amir striving to free himself from domination…

ABŪ SALĪK (SOLAYK, according to Forūzānfar) GORGĀNĪ, Persian poet, contemporary of ʿAmr b. Layṯ the Saffarid (265-88/879-901). The taḏkeras Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ and Lobāb al-albāb have preserved two fragments from his work in four bayts. In the first fragment, written in ramal meter (-ᴗ–/-ᴗ–/-ᴗ-), the established traditions of written poetry can…

ABŪ SAʿD B. SAHL TOSTARĪ, businessman and quasi-vizier in Fatimid Egypt, d. 439/1047. Sahl and two younger brothers emigrated from Ahvāz and founded one of the most prominent business firms in the Egyptian capital. The scope and high quality of their undertaking are shown in letters addressed to them from…

ABŪ SAʿĪD FAŻLALLĀH B. ABI’L-ḴAYR AḤMAD MĒHANĪ (or MAYHANĪ), 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. The major sources for his biography, two Persian hagiographies, were compiled…

ABŪ SAʿĪD BAHĀDOR KHAN, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DONYĀ-WA’L-DĪN, ninth Il-khan of Iran, the son and successor of Öljeitü (Ūlǰāytū). The more correct form of his name is Bū Saʿīd, as stated by Ṣafadī (al-Wāfī, p. 322) and confirmed by documents (see V. Minorsky, “A Mongol Decree of 720/1320 to the Family of Shaykh…

ABŪ SAʿĪD JANNĀBĪ, ḤASAN B. BAHRĀM, founder of the Qarmaṭī state in Baḥrain (b. between 230/845, and 240/855, d. 300/913 or 301/913-14). A native of Jannābā on the coast of Fārs and of Persian origin, whether he himself claimed royal Persian descent or the claim was put forward later on…

ABŪ SAʿĪD KHAN B. KUČKUNČI, cousin of Šaybānī Khan and great-grandson of Uluḡ Beg in the female line, khan of the Uzbeks of Transoxania (936-40/1530-33). He became the heir-apparent to his father only shortly before the death of the latter, after the death of two senior Shaibanid sultans, first Soyuṇč…

ABŪ ŠOJĀʿ EṢFAHĀNĪ, QĀŻĪ TAQĪ-AL-DĪN AḤMAD B. AL-ḤASAN (or B. AL-ḤOSAYN) B. AḤMAD AL-ʿABBĀDĀNĪ, 434-500/1042-43 to 1106, Shafeʿite jurist. He was born in Baṣra; his father was from ʿAbbādān and his grandfather from Isfahan. Abū Šoǰāʿ taught Shafeʿite law in his native city for over forty years. He edited a…

ABŪ ŠOʿAYB HERAVĪ, ṢĀLEḤ B. MOḤAMMAD, 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. Hedāyat identifies him in the Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ (I, p. 139) as having been active during the latter part of…

ABŪ ṬĀHER, designation of a family of leading potters from Kāšān, known through four generations (602-734/1205-1333). The first member of the family may be a certain Bū Ṭāher Ḥosayn, who is known through a single signed example of his work, a bowl decorated in the mīnāʾī technique and dateable by…

ABŪ ṬĀHER ḴĀTŪNĪ, MOWAFFAQ-AL-DAWLA, officer, famous poet, and author in the reign of the Saljuq Sultan Moḥammad b. Malekšāh (498-511/1105-18). He was the accountant (mostawfī) for Gowhar Ḵātūn, wife of Sultan Moḥammad; hence, probably, his epithet Ḵātūnī. The title (laqab) Kamāl-al-dīn (Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ I, p. 141) is discredited by the…

ABŪ ṬĀHER ṬAYYEB B. MOḤAMMAD ḴOSRAVĀNĪ, a poet of the Samanid period. He was a contemporary of Rūdakī; according to Šams-al-dīn Moḥammad b. Qays (al-Moʿǰam fī maʿāyīr ašʿār al-ʿaǰam, ed. M. Qazvīnī and Modarres Rażawī, Tehran, 1338 Š./1959, p. 470) he took the subject matter of a couplet by Rūdakī…