Explore Iranica

ABŪ ṬĀHER ḴᵛĀJA B. MAWLĀNĀ [MOLLĀ] MĪR ABŪ SAʿĪD ḴᵛĀJA SAMARQANDĪ, MOLLĀ (first half of the 13th/19th century), author of a book named Ṯamarīya (see N. D. Miklukho-Maklaĭ, Opisanie tadzhikskikh i persidskikh rukopiseĭ Instituta vostokovedeniya, Moscow and Leningrad, 1955, nos. 82, 83, 84) or Samarīya (see A. Semyonov, ed., Sobranie…

ABŪ ṬĀLEB ḤOSAYNĪ ʿARĪZĪ, 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. It also contains an appendix, called Tūzok or Tūzokāt (“Institutes”). But the veracity of both texts is…

ABŪ ṬĀLEB KHAN LANDANĪ B. ḤĀJJĪ MOḤAMMAD BEG KHAN TABRĪZĪ EṢFAHĀNĪ, official and author in British India. His father, an Azerbaijani Turk by descent, had emigrated from Isfahan to Lucknow. Abū Ṭāleb was born in Lucknow in 1166/1753. In 1775-76 he served as a district administrator in the regime of…

ABŪ ṬĀLEB TABRĪZĪ (pen name ṬĀLEB), poet and physician, d. 1015/1606-07. Born into a noble family of Tabrīz (which was taken by the Ottomans in 993/1585), Abū Ṭāleb studied medicine and literature in Tabrīz and in Qazvīn, where he established his practice (Tarbīat, Dānešmandān, p. 243). He was a skilled…

ABŪ TORĀB NAḴŠABĪ, ʿASKAR B. ḤOSAYN (or B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN), noted 3rd/9th century ascetic. Although apparently born in Naḵšab near Bokhara, he is counted as one of the great shaikhs of Khorasan. His teacher is said to have been Ḥātem al-Aṣamm. Abū Torāb traveled extensively, heard Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal…

ABŪ TORĀB WALĪ B. SHAH QOṬB-AL-DĪN ŠOKRALLĀH, MĪR, 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. Abū Torāb was…

ABŪ YAʿQŪB YŪSOF B. AYYŪB HAMADĀNĪ (440-535/1048-49 to 1140), important figure in the history of Iranian and Central Asian Sufism (largely neglected by both Iranian and Western scholarship). He was the first of the Ḵᵛāǰagān, a line of Transoxanian masters from which evolved the Naqšbandī and Yasavī orders. He was…

ABŪ YAʿQŪB JORJĀNĪ, disciple of Ebn Karrām (d. 255/869). He called God’s hands, His face (waǰh), etc. “bodies” (aǰsām) and seems, by that, to bear some responsibility for the “anthropomorphic” image of the Karrāmīya. He was also a traditionist (moḥaddeṯ); some of his traditions are preserved in the Karrāmī manuscript…

ABŪ YAʿQŪB SEJESTĀNĪ (or SEJZĪ), ESḤĀQ B. AḤMAD, one of the most important of the early Ismaʿili dāʿīs. He achieved during his lifetime (fl. second-third quarters of the 4th/10th century) a special renown as a teacher and leader among the Ismaʿilis and gained even more recognition during subsequent generations for…

ABŪ YŪSOF QAZVĪNĪ, ʿABD-AL-SALĀM B. MOḤAMMAD B. YŪSOF B. BONDĀR, Muʿtazilite scholar and author of an immense Koran commentary, born Šaʿbān, 393/June, 1003 (according to another report 391) in Qazvīn. His family appears to have been wealthy. His father was lettered, transmitting poetry of Qāżī ʿAlī b. ʿAbd-al- ʿAzīz Jorǰānī…

ABŪ ZAYD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ABĪ ZAYD KĀŠĀNĪ, 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…

ABŪ ZAYD AḤMAD B. SAHL BALḴĪ, in his day a 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. His father was a…

ABŪ ZAYD KĀŠĀNĪ, a potter who signed a ceramic bowl in the enameled (mīnāʾī) technique dated 4 Moḥarram 582/26 March 1186. Painted in blue, aubergine, and black on a turquoise ground, it depicts two personages seated on a throne with four attendants listening to a presentation by another seated figure….