Explore Iranica

ABU’L-FAŻL ŠĪRĀZĪ, AL-ʿABBĀS B. AL-ḤOSAYN, vizier in the time of the Buyids, patron of the Shiʿi Arab poet Ebn al-Ḥaǰǰāǰ, born in Shiraz in 303/915, died at Kūfa in 362/973. According to Ebn Meskawayh (Taǰāreb al-omam VI, Cairo, 1333/1915, p. 269) Abu’l-Fażl came to Baghdad with the Buyid Moʿezz-al-dawla. He…

ABU’L-FAŻL (in Jūzǰānī ABU’L-FATḤ) TĀJ-AL-DĪN NAṢR B. ṬĀHER, amir of the line of later Saffarids, sometimes called the third dynasty of Saffarids and, by a historian like Jūzǰānī, the “Maleks of Nīmrūz and Seǰestān.” He succeeded his father Bahāʾ-al-dawla Ṭāher b. Moḥammad in about 483/1090-91 and died, a centenarian, in…

ABU’L-FAŻL ʿALLĀMĪ, historian, officer, chief secretary, and confidant of the Mughal emperor Akbar I. Born on 6 Moḥarram 958/14 January 1551, he was the second son of Shaikh Mobārak, a teacher and scholar who had migrated to Agra in 950/1543 from Nagaur, Rajastan. Although Abu’l-Fażl grew up in the capital…

ABU’L-FOTŪḤ EṢFAHĀNĪ, ASʿAD B. ABI’L-FAŻĀʾEL MAḤMŪD B. ḴALAF AL-ʿEJLĪ, known also by his laqab Montaǰab-al-dīn (or in some sources Montaḵab-al-dīn), a well-known Shafeʿite scholar and traditionist. Abu’l-Fotūḥ was born in Isfahan in 514/1120 or 515/1121, and studied traditions there with a number of leading scholars, including Omm Ebrāhīm Fāṭema, daughter…

ABU’L-FOTŪḤ RĀZĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN ḤOSAYN B. ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD B. AḤMAD B. EBRĀHĪM B. AL-FAŻL B. ŠOJĀʿ B. HĀŠEM ḴOZĀʿĪ, Shiʿite commentator on the Koran who lived in the first half of the 6th/12th century. He came of an illustrious Arab family, his ancestor Bodayl b. Warqāʾ having fought, together with…

ABU’L-ḠĀZĪ BAHĀDOR KHAN, khan of Ḵīva (r. 1054-74/1644 to 1663-64) and Čaḡatāy historian. The son of ʿArab Moḥammad Khan, Uzbek ruler of the Shaibanid dynasty (q.v.) and a princess of the same royal house, he was probably born 16 Rabīʿ I 1012/24 August 1603. He spent his youth at his…

ABU’L-ḤASAN AHWĀZĪ, astronomer, fl. after ca. 215/830. He is known through citations by Bīrūnī. He used the revolutions of the planets in a mahāyuga according to the system of the Indian Āryabhaṭa (Bīrūnī, India, Hyderabad [Deccan], 1958, p. 357; tr. E. Sachau, London, 1910, II, p. 19; cf. Hāšemī, The…

ABU’L-ḤASAN EṢFAHĀNĪ, ĀYATALLĀH (1284-1365/1867-1946), an Iranian moǰtahed who was a leading religious authority in the Shiʿite world for more than thirty years. He was born in a village near Isfahan into a family of Behbahānī origin that had traditionally produced religious scholars. His grandfather, Sayyed ʿAbd-al-Ḥamīd, had been a prominent…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ B. FAŻL B. AḤMAD ESFARĀʾĪNĪ, first vizier for the Ghaznavid sultan Maḥmūd (r. 388-421/998-1030). He began his career as a secretary in Khorasan in the entourage of the ambitious Turkish general of the Samanids, ʿAmīd-al-dawla Fāʾeq Ḵāṣṣa, and was probably a native of the town of Esfarāʾīn in…

ABU’L-ḤASAN B. MOḤAMMAD AMĪN GOLESTĀNA, vizier of Kermānšāhān and chronicler of post-Afsharid Iran. He was a member of a family of Ḥasanī sayyeds long established at Isfahan. Religious considerations had kept earlier members of the family from involvement with the state, but by Afsharid times Golestāna sayyeds were found in…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ŠAMSĪ HERAVĪ, medieval mathematician; Seǰzī (late 4th/10th century) quotes some of his propositions regarding the trisection of an angle; and these are all that survive of his work (F. Woepcke, L’algèbre d’Omar Alkhayyāmī, Paris, 1851, pp. 118-19, 122). It was suggested (Suter, Mathematiker, p. 228) that he may be…

ABU’L-ḤASAN JORJĀNĪ, ʿALĪ B. ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. ḤASAN B. ʿALĪ B. ESMĀʿĪL (“Qāżī Jorǰānī”), Shafeʿite jurist, poet, and man of letters, b. ca. 322/933. He came to Nīšāpūr at the age of fifteen and there progressed rapidly in various fields of learning. He was appointed judge (qāżī) of Gorgān and became…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ḴARAQĀNĪ, ʿALĪ B. AḤMAD B. JAʿFAR B. SALMĀN (352-425/963-1033), Sufi shaikh of Ḵaraqān, some 20 km north of Basṭām in Khorasan. His shrine, with a recent gravestone but ancient adjoining mosque, overlooks the present-day village. Already celebrated in his own lifetime, Ḵaraqānī is said to receive illustrious visitors such…

ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ARDALĀN, ḤĀJJ FAḴR-AL-MOLK, b. 1279/1862-63, government official under the late Qajars. He was related to the royal family by blood and marriage. In his youth he served in court as a page. Later he became an attendant of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah and accompanied him in his tour of Europe…

ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ḠAFFĀRĪ, ṢANĪʿ-AL-MOLK (1814-66), painter in oils and miniature, lacquer artist, and book illustrator. He was the eldest son of Mīrzā Moḥammad Ḡaffārī, and great-nephew of Abu’l-Ḥasan Mostawfī, the first of a line of Kāšān painters. In 1829 he was a pupil of the best of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah’s court…