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ABU’L-QĀSEM AL-KŪFĪ, ʿALĪ B. AḤMAD AL-ʿALAWĪ, a scholar of philosophy, theology, and other disciplines who was at first an Emāmī Shiʿite but later embraced a form of extreme Shiʿism; died near Šīrāz, 352/962. Ebn al-Nadīm described him as “one of the illustrious members of the Emāmīya” (Fehrest, p. 192). Abū…

ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM (pen name MONʿEMĪ), 18th century historian of Kashmir. He was apparently attached to the court of Awadh, since he mentions his accompanying the nawwāb’s army to Etawah in 1188/1774. Though a poet, he is not mentioned in familiar taḏkeras. His father, Ḵᵛāǰa Moḥammad Aʿẓam Kōl (Kawl?) Mostaḡnī,…

ABU’L-QĀSEM B. JAʿFAR NĀʾĪNĪ, ḤAJJ MĪRZĀ SOLṬĀN-AL-ḤOKAMĀʾ (1245-1322/1829-30 to 1904-05), major representative (practitioner, instructor, author) of traditional medicine in late Qajar Persia. Abu’l-Qāsem, allegedly a descendant of the Il-khan Ö lǰāytū (al-Ḏarīʿa XXIV, p. 16, no. 81) received his primary education at the Nīmāvar school in Isfahan and continued and…

ABU’L-QĀSEM SAʿĪD B. EBRĀHĪM B. ʿALAM EBRĀHĪM B. ṢĀLEḤ, 5th/11th century calligrapher, probably a native and resident of Nīšāpūr. His name is preserved in the colophon of a Koran manuscript written in early nasḵī script. The Koran (London, British Library, Add. 7214; Plate XVI) is dated Jomādā I, 427/March, 1036….

ABU’L-QĀSEM SOLṬĀN, Bēglār chief of Sind, b. at Nasarpur, Sind, in 969/1562. He was also known by the title “Arḡūn” (Mīr Moḥammad, Tārīḵ, p. 228; Mīr ʿAlī, Toḥfa I, p. 203); this was due to his family’s association with the Arghunids of Qandahār and Sind. The family traced its ancestry…

ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿABDALLĀH KĀŠĀNĪ, historian of the reign of the Il-khan Olǰāytū (r. 703-16/1304-16) and member of the Abū Ṭāher family of potters. He was apparently associated with two rivals of the period, the viziers Fażlallāh Rašīd-al-dīn and Tāǰ-al-dīn ʿAlīšāh. The first (and probably original) preface to his earliest work (no….

ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ABĪ ḤANĪFA, vizier to the atabeg of Lorestān Šams-al-dawla Ḡāzī Beg Aydoḡmuš. It was for this vizier that Abu’l-Šaraf Nāṣeḥ b. Ẓafar b. Saʿd Jorbādqānī, in the early years of the 7th/13th century, made his simplified Persian version of Abu’l-Naṣr ʿOtbī’s ornate Arabic…

ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN B. ʿAMR, a wealthy dehqān from Sabzavār who was prominent as a founder of madrasas in the second decade of the 5th/11th century. As a member of an old and aristocratic family which had marital connection with the illustrious Mīkālī family, Abu’l-Qāsem served as…

ABU’L-RAYYĀN EṢFAHĀNĪ, AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD, Buyid vizier. Of unknown origin, Abu’l-Rayyān had been lieutenant in Baghdad of Moṭahhar b. ʿAbdallāh and the Christian Naṣr b. Hārūn, both viziers of ʿAżod-al-dawla. They had chosen him less for reasons of exceptional qualities than for his long experience in numerous positions. When ʿAżod-al-dawla…

ABU’L-ṬAYYEB ṬĀHER B. ʿABDALLĀH B. ṬĀHER ṬABARĪ ĀMOLĪ, jurisconsult, judge (qāżī), and professor of legal sciences; he was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the leading Shafeʿites of 5th/11th century Baghdad. Born in Āmol in Ṭabarestān in 348/959-60, Ṭabarī began his studies at age fourteen, somewhat late by the…

ABU’L-ṬAYYEB ṬĀHER B. ḤOSAYN B. MOṢʿAB B. ROZAYQ, founder of the Taherid dynasty of Khorasan; born 139/775-76 in Pūšang (Būšang), died 207/822 in Marv. Ṭāher’s great-grandfather Rozayq was mawlā of the governor of Seǰestān, Abū Moḥammad Ṭalḥa b. ʿAbdallāh Ḵozāʿī (62-64/681-82 to 683-84), and the Taherid family came then as…

ABU’L-WAFĀʾ B. SAʿĪD, author of a Persian Moḵtaṣar-e moštamel bar mesāḥat-e abʿād va soṭūḥ va moǰassamāt va bar kayfīyat-e aʿmāl-e hendī (“Epitome comprising areas, distances, surfaces, and solids and the manner of the Indian operations”). The unique manuscript, in Leningrad, was copied from the author’s autograph written in 823/1420-21.

ABU’L-WAFĀʾ MOḤAMMAD B. MOḤAMMAD BŪZJĀNĪ, mathematician and astronomer, b. Wednesday, on the new moon of Ramażān, 328/10 June 940, at Būzǰān in the region of Nīšāpūr. He studied arithmetic under his paternal uncle, Abū ʿAmr Moḡāzelī, and his maternal uncle, Abū ʿAbdallāh Moḥammad b. ʿAnbasa, presumably at Būzǰān. He moved…