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ABU’L-FARAJ SEJZĪ, 4th/10th century poet of Sīstān, author of several lost works on the art of poetry. Only three couplets have been preserved from his compositions. Abu’l-Faraǰ was an adherent of Abū ʿAlī Sīmǰūrī (d. 387/997) on whose behest he wrote invectives against the Ghaznavids. When Sultan Maḥmūd defeated Abū…

ABU’L-FATḤ B. MAḤMŪD (or MOḤAMMAD) B. AL-QĀSEM B. AL-FAŻL AL-EṢFAHĀNĪ, an early 6th/12th century astronomer. His best known work is his revision of books V-VII of the Arabic translation, completed by Helāl b. Abī Helāl and Ṯābet b. Qorra, of the Cronica of Apollonius of Perge. This section of that…

ABU’L-FATḤ ŠARAFĪ ŠARĪFĪ ḤOSAYNĪ ʿARABŠĀHĪ B. MOḤAMMAD B. MAḴDŪM B. SAYYED ŠARĪF JORJĀNĪ, MĪR, Shiʿite jurist, d. 976/1568-69. He was descended from a famous family of erudite sayyeds whose most celebrated ancestor, Sayyed Šarīf ʿAlī b. Moḥammad Jorǰānī (d. 816/1413), was taken away by Tīmūr from Shiraz to Transoxania. Other…

ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN BAḴTĪĀRĪ, a chieftain of the Haft Lang branch of the Baḵtīārī and paramount chief (īlḵānī) of the tribe. Abu’l-Fatḥ was governor of Isfahan at the time of Nāder Shah’s death in 1160/1747; he was confirmed in this post by Nāder’s immediate successors, ʿĀdel Shah, Ebrāhīm, and Šāhroḵ. When…

ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN JAVĀNŠĪR, son of the ruler of Qarābāḡ, Ebrāhīm Ḵalīl Khan Javānšīr, and through his sister brother-in-law of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah. In the First Russo-Persian War Abu’l-Fatḥ Khan supported the Persians and fought on the side of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā; his father placed himself under the protection of…

ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN ZAND, eldest son of Karīm Khan (Wakīl) of the Īnāq lineage of the Zand, b. 1169/1755-56. His mother was a sister of Esmāʿīl Solṭān Kord-e Qūčānī. In the dispute over the succession following the death of Karīm Khan (13 Ṣafar 1193/2 March 1779), one party backed Abu’l-Fatḥ Khan;…

ABU’L-FATḤ MĪRZĀ, MOʾAYYED-AL-DAWLA (d. 1330/1912), Qajar prince who held a number of governorships. His father was Solṭān Morād Mīrzā Ḥoṣām-al-salṭana, who likewise occupied a succession of government posts. He was married to Afsar-al-dawla, daughter of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah by his first marriage, and was thus a brother-in-law of Kāmrān Mīrzā Nāʾeb-al-salṭana,…

ABU’L-FATḤ YŪSOF B. YAʿQŪB, ŠAMS-AL-WOZARĀʾ QOṬB-AL-DĪN NEẒĀM-AL-MOLK, Ghaznavid vizier of the early 6th/12th century. The dates of his birth and death are unknown; the biographical works on viziers by Nāṣer-al-dīn Kermānī, Sayf-al-dīn Fażlī, and others stop short at the viziers of the later Ghaznavids. It is possible that he was…

ABU’L-FAYŻ KAMĀL-AL-DĪN SERHENDĪ, MOḤAMMAD EḤSĀN B. ḤASAN AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD HĀDĪ B. ʿOBAYDALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD MAʿṢŪM B. AḤMAD, author of Rawżat al-qayyūmīya, a still unpublished taḏkera of the Naqšbandīya-Moǰaddedīya order in India. References in the text indicate that Abu’l-Fayż was born on 27 1121/2 October 1709 in Sirhind. In 1131/1718-19…

ABU’L-FAŻL (or ABU’L-FAŻĀʾEL) GOLPĀYEGĀNĪ, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD, prominent Bahaʾi scholar and apologist. He was born in Jomādā II, 1260/June-July, 1844 in Golpāyegān, the son of Mīrzā Moḥammad-Reżā Šarīʿatmadār. After studying traditional Islamic sciences at Karbalā, Naǰaf, and Isfahan, he proceeded, in October, 1873 to Tehran, where he soon became head of…

ABU’L-FAŻL MOḤAMMAD B. ḤASAN ḴOTTALĪ (d. 453/1061?), preceptor of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Hoǰvīrī (d. 465/1073), the author of the celebrated Persian treatise on Sufism, Kašf al-maḥǰūb. It is from this work that virtually our entire knowledge of Ḵottalī is derived (Samarqand, 1330/1912, pp. 208-09; Eng. tr. R. A. Nicholson, The Kashf…

ABU’L-FAŻL MĪKĀL, ʿOBAYDALLĀH (also called ʿABDALLĀH and ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN) B. AḤMAD B. ʿALĪ, author and poet, d. 436/1045. Abu’l-Fażl traced his lineage back to the Sasanian king Pērōz. His mastery of Arabic literature was such that Ṯaʿālebī recognized him as the equal of Ebn ʿAmīd and Ṣāḥeb b. ʿAbbād, and in…

ABU’L-FAŻL B. FAŻLALLĀH MAJD-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD SĀVAJĪ (1248-1312/1832-95), a scholar, calligrapher, poet, and physician active in Qajar court circles. His father had moved to Tehran from Sāva, but his family was descended from Ḥasan Khan Šāmlū, the Safavid governor of Herat under Shah ʿAbbās I and Shah Ṣafī. Abu’l-Fażl was precocious,…