Explore Iranica

ABŪ ZAYN KAḤḤĀL, author of the medical text Šarāyeṭ-e ǰarrāḥī; its dedication to the Timurid Šāhroḵ (r. 807-50/1404-47) provides the only context for his life. Judging by the text, he was a practicing surgeon (and not an oculist, Kaḥḥāl). The book, although titled “Surgical Requirements,” is actually a general medical…

ABŪ ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SOLAMĪ, MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN B. MŪSĀ AZDĪ NĪSĀBŪRĪ (325-412/937-1021), Sufi, traditionist, and hagiographer. His nesba Solamī derives from the Arab tribe of Solaym (Samʿānī, Ansāb [Leiden], fols. 303b-304a) through his maternal grandfather (Solamī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfīya [Cairo], p. 454). The above derivation has to be maintained against the one…

ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH B. AL-BAYYEʿ (EBN AL-BAYYEʿ), a noted traditionist and local historian, b. 321/933, d. 405/1014; full name: ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABDALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḤAMDŪYA B. NOʿAYM B. AL-ḤAKAM AL-ŻABBĪ AL-ṬAHMĀNĪ; he was commonly known as AL-ḤĀKEM AL-NĪSĀBŪRĪ because of his once having held a post…

ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH YAʿQŪB B. DĀʾŪD, vizier of the ʿAbbasid caliph Mahdī (r. 158-69/775-85). He professed pro-ʿAlid sentiments and participated in the revolt of the Hasanids Ebrāhīm and Moḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh against the caliph Manṣūr in 145/762-63. Imprisoned, he was set free in 159/775-76 by Mahdī, who sought, by means of…

ABŪ ʿALĪ AḤMAD B. ŠĀḎĀN, governor (ʿamīd) of Balḵ and northern Afghanistan under the Saljuq ruler of Khorasan, Čaḡrī Beg Dāʾūd, and then under his son, Alp Arslan. One of the main events of his tenure of power was the final capture from the Ghaznavids of the important bridgepoint over…

ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD B. AḤMAD BALḴĪ, author of a Šāh-nāma, according to Bīrūnī (Āṯār al-bāqīa, pp. 99f.). Abū ʿAlī is said to have selected traditions regarding the beginning of the world from Sīar al-molūk by Ebn Moqaffaʿ and books by Moḥammad b. Jahm Barmakī, Hešām b. Qāsem, Bahrām b. Mardānšāh…

ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD B. ʿĪSĀ DĀMḠĀNĪ, vizier of the Samanids in the last years of their power. The reign of Amīr Nūḥ II b. Manṣūr (365-87/976-97) was rent by internal strife among the great military leaders of the state, with the viziers tending to become the creatures of one or…

ABŪ ʿALĪ DAQQĀQ, ḤASAN B. ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD B. ESḤĀQ, ascetic of Nīšāpūr (d. 405/1015). He was the teacher of the famous Abu’l-Qāsem Qošayrī, who married Fāṭema, his daughter, some time before 414/1023, which is the birth date of their first son (R. Bulliet, The Patricians of Nishapur, Cambridge, Mass.,…

ABŪ ʿALĪ FĀRESĪ, ḤASAN B. AḤMAD B. ʿABD-AL-ḠAFFĀR (288-377/900-87), grammarian at the court of the Buyid ʿAżod-al-dawla (d. 366/977). He was born in Fasā, a small town in the district of Shiraz, to a Persian father and an Arab mother from the tribe of Sadūs. Ḥasan’s family facilitated his mastery…

ABŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR, ŠARAF-AL-DĪN PĀNĪPATĪ (also known as SHAH BŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR), Indian poet and saint, d. 725/1324. His mausoleum at Panipat remains a popular center for pilgrimage. Unfortunately no authentic records of his life or teachings are available. Since he was a qalandar, we should not expect to find…

ABŪ ʿAMR AL-MĀZOLĪ, Karrāmī theologian, fl. mid-4th/mid-10th century. Most of the later branches of the Karrāmīya traced themselves back to Ebn Karrām through him; he was the last important representative of the school before the expansion and diversification which occurred under the early Ghaznavids. Nothing is known about Abū ʿAmr’s…

ABŪ ʿAṬĀ (ʿAṬĀʾ), one of the twelve modes in the dastgāh system of classical Iranian music; more precisely, it should be called āvāz-e Abū ʿAṭā or naḡma-ye Abū ʿAṭā. The reason for this name is not known; it is alternatively called dastān-e ʿarab (“Arabian song;” M. Barkešlī and M. Maʿrūfī,…

ABŪ ʿAWĀNA YAʿQŪB B. ESḤĀQ B. EBRĀHĪM NĪŠĀBŪRĪ ESFARĀYĪNĪ, a Shafeʿite legal scholar and traditionist. He is credited with introducing the Shafeʿite school in Esfarāyīn, which remained a leading center of Shafeʿism even after the Hanafite maḏhab made serious inroads in Khorasan. Abū ʿAwāna traveled widely throughout the major centers…

ABŪ ʿAWN, ʿABD-AL-MALEK B. YAZĪD ḴORĀSĀNĪ AZDĪ, a distinguished ʿAbbasid general, twice governor of Egypt and once of Khorasan. Although Abū ʿAwn’s career can be followed for a period of forty years, little is known beyond its bare outline. He first is mentioned raising money for the ʿAbbasid cause in…