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ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ĪLČĪ, MĪRZĀ, Persian diplomat, b. 1190/1776 in Šīrāz. He was the second son of Mīrzā Moḥammad-ʿAlī, the brother-in-law of Ḥāǰǰī Ebrāhīm Khan Eʿtemād-al-dawla (q.v.), the prime minister of the Qajars Āḡā Moḥammad Khan and Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah; he married Ḥāǰǰī Ebrāhīm’s daughter. In 1215/1800, when Ḥāǰǰī Ebrāhīm fell out…

ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MAḤALLĀTĪ KOHAKĪ, SAYYED, imam of the Nezārī Ismaʿilis of the Qāsemšāhī line, beglerbegi of Kermān under Karīm Khan Zand and his successors from approximately 1181/1768 to 1206/1791-92. The epithet “Kohakī” indicates that he originally was from the village of Kohak in the Maḥallāt region. As imam of the…

ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MOJTAHED, MĪRZĀ (1121-1279/1806-63), member of a prominent family of Shiraz who led a turbulent life alternating between government service and the cultivation of religious knowledge in a manner unusual in Qajar Iran. His father, Mīrzā Moḥammad Hādī Fasāʾī, had married the daughter of Ḥosayn ʿAlī Mīrzā Farmānfarmā, so…

ABU’L-ḤASAN MOSTAWFĪ, painter and historian of the 12th/18th century from Kāšān, son of Mīrzā Moʿezz-al-dīn Moḥammad Ḡaffārī. Under Karīm Khan Zand, Abu’l-Ḥasan was governor of Kāšān, Qom, Naṭanz and Jowšeqān for more than thirty years, beginning in 1162/1749. Later he became Karīm Khan’s secretary and wrote a history of his…

ABU’L-ḤASAN NĀDER-AL-ZAMĀN, noted Mughal painter. He was born in 997/1589 at the court of Prince Salīm (later the emperor Jahāngīr), where his father, Āqā Reżā from Herat, lived and worked as a painter. He was held in great esteem by Jahāngīr (977-1037/1569-1627), who had him trained to be a court…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ŠAMSĀBĀDĪ, ĀYATALLĀH (1326-96/1908-76), an influential moǰtahed of Isfahan who was murdered on 7 April 1976 under mysterious circumstances. Born into a family of religious scholars of Māzandarānī origin that had settled in Isfahan in the early 19th century, Šamsābādī received his preliminary education in Isfahan under the guidance of…

ABU’L-ḤASAN B. ʿABD-AL-WAHHĀB TAFREŠĪ (1261-1323/1845 to 1905-06), medical instructor, author, and public health official in late Qajar Persia. Abu’l-Ḥasan was born in Ṭarḵorān (34°40’ north latitude, 50° east longitude, apparently identical with Tafreš, of which it used to be a dependency; see Gazetteer of Iran I, p. 654, and maps…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ṬĀLAQĀNĪ, ḤOJJAT-AL-ESLĀM (?-1350/1932), religious scholar and father of the celebrated Āyatallāh Maḥmūd Ṭālaqānī. Born in the village of Gelīrd near Ṭālaqān, he completed the preliminary stages of his religious training in Tehran before joining the circle of the great moǰtahed Mīrzā Ḥasan Šīrāzī in Sāmarrāʾ. After the death of…

ABU’L-HAYJĀ ARDAŠĪR B. DAYLAMSOPĀR NAJMĪ QOṬBĪ, Persian poet of the 5th-6th/11th-12th centuries. At his request Asadī Ṭūsī wrote the Loḡat-e fors; and one line in that text attributed to a Naǰmī may be the work of Abu’l-Hayǰā; Asadī calls him his own “learned child” (Loḡat-e fors, pp. 1-2; the verse is…

ABU’L-HAYṮAM AḤMAD B. ḤASAN GORGĀNĪ, Ismaʿili philosopher, for a long time one of the great unknown figures in the history of Irano-Islamic philosophy. A brief notice on him survives in the history of ʿAlī b. Zayd Bayhaqī (a notice in which the proper names are very badly treated in the…

ABU’L-HOḎAYL AL-ʿALLĀF, MOḤAMMAD B. AL-HOḎAYL B. ʿOBAYDALLĀH B. MAKḤŪL AL-ʿABDĪ (ca. 135-227/752-841?), early Muʿtazilite theologian of universal reputation. He seems to have been of Persian descent, a mawlā of ʿAbd-al-Qays. The greater part of his life was spent in Baṣra, where he must have been much impressed by the theology…

ABU’L-ḤOSAYN MOḤAMMAD B. ʿALĪ B. AL-ṬAYYEB AL-BAṢRĪ, Muʿtazilite theologian and lawyer, d. 436/1044. Although he was born in Baṣra, he spent most of his life in Baghdad. His best-known theological work, Ketāb taṣaffoḥ al-adella, was a critical investigation of the various arguments and proofs presented in the writings of earlier…

ABU’L-ḤOSAYN AḤMAD B. SAʿD KĀTEB, official of the Buyids and writer in Arabic of the 4th/10th century. Little is known of him beyond what Yāqūt records in his biographical notice. He apparently came from Fārs; in 323/935 he was appointed head of the finances of the province of Isfahan by…

ABU’L-JĀRŪD ZĪĀD B. AL-MONḎER B. ZĪĀD AL-HAMDĀNĪ AL-ḴĀREFĪ, Kufan Shiʿite scholar and leader of the early Zaydite group named after him, the Jārūdīya. The nesba al-Ḵārefī refers him to Ḵāref, a clan of Hamdān which was represented in Kūfa and had supported the movement of Moḵtār. The reading of a…

ABU’L-ḴAṬṬĀB MOḤAMMAD B. ABĪ ZAYNAB MEQLĀS AL-AJDAʿ AL-ASADĪ, founder of the extremist Shiʿite sect Ḵaṭṭābīya. Ṭūsī gives his name as Moḥammad b. Meqlās (Meqlāṣ) al-Asadī al-Kūfī (Reǰāl, p. 302). Kaššī gives the longer form (Reǰāl [abridged and purged version entitled Eḵtīār maʿrefat al-reǰāl by Ṭūsī], Mašhad, 1348 Š./1969-70, p. 290)….