Explore Iranica

ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ḴᵛĀRAZMĪ, famous Sufi of Kobrawī affiliation, esoterist, scholar, poet, and musician, known as “angelic master” (pīr-e ferešta) or “angel on earth” (ferešta-ye rū-ye zamīn). Ḵᵛāǰa Abu’l-Wafāʾ, as he is usually called, died in 835/1431-32 in Ḵᵛārazm. From one of his quatrains, in which he speaks of himself as an…

ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ŠĪRĀZĪ, SAYYED KAMĀL-AL-DĪN (fl. 10th/16th century), a Sufi of Shiraz, morīd of the well-known preacher, mystic and writer, Shah Dāʿī Elā Allāh Šīrāzī (d. 870/1465), who dedicated to him his commentary on the Maṯnawī . According to Reżā-qolī Khan Hedāyat (Rīāż al-ʿārefīn, Tehran, 1344 Š./1965, p. 109), Abu’l-Wafāʾ was…

ABU’L-WAZĪR ʿOMAR B. MOṬARREF B. MOḤAMMAD ʿABDĪ AL-MARVAZĪ, secretary and author, d. 186/802. The biographers confirm that his family was from Marv, and the nesba ʿAbdī relates him to the tribe of ʿAbd-al-Qays (Fehrest, p. 127; Yāqūt, Odabāʾ XVI, Cairo, 1936-38, pp. 71-73; Aḡānī3, p. 46). According to Yāqūt (loc….

ABU’L-YANBAḠĪ ʿABBĀS B. TARḴĀN, Iranian poet, d. 230/844. He has occasionally been identified with Abu’l-ʿAbbās Marvazī (d. 200/815-16; see W. Barthold, “To the Question of Early Persian Poetry,” BSOS II , 1923, pp. 836-38). However his usual nesba is Samarqandī. His father’s laqab, Tarḵān, indicates a princely descent. Abu’l-Yanbaḡī was…

ABU’L-ʿABBĀS B. ḤANŪD MARVAZĪ, Sufi, jurist, and traditionist, one of the first poets to write in New Persian. Soyūṭī (d. 911/1505) and, following him, ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn Dede (d. 1007/1598) date his death to 300/912 (Ṣafā, Adabīyāt I, p. 178); while according to ʿAwfī (Lobāb, pp. 21f.) and Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ (I, pp….

ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ GANJAVĪ, NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN MAḤMŪD, 6th/12th century poet at the court of Ḵāqān Faḵr-al-dīn Manūčehr Šervānšāh. He is also referred to as Ostāḏ-al-šoʿarāʾ, an allusion to the fact that two more illustrious poets, Falakī and Ḵāqānī Šervānī, were among his pupils. Internal evidence from his poetry indicates he was born between…

ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ HAMADĀNĪ, ḤASAN B. AḤMAD B. ḤASAN B. MOḤAMMAD B. SAHL B. SALAMA AL-ʿAṬṬĀR, saintly specialist in the science of Koran readings (qerāʾāt) and Tradition, born in Hamadān in 488/1090 and died in 569/1173. Abu’l-ʿAlāʾ pursued his education in Hamadān, Isfahan, Khorasan, Baghdad, and Wāseṭ, hearing eminent traditionists of his…

ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ ŠOŠTARĪ (referred to also as BU’L-ʿALĀʾ, in both forms either with or without the nesba), early Persian poet and prosodist (the earliest known from the Šoštar area). The identity of the poet referred to simply as (A)bu’l-ʿAlāʾ with (A)bu’l-ʿAlāʾ Šoštarī is indicated by remains of his poetry: A bayt…

ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ ʿAṬĀʾ, called NĀKŪK, secretary and poet of the Ghaznavid period, d. 491/1098. Little is known of his life, but ʿAwfī, in a biographical notice in his Lobāb al-albāb, gives him the title of ʿamīd and kāteb. It seems that he filled high office under the Ghaznavid sultan Ebrāhīm b….

ABU’L-ʿAMAYṮAL ʿABDALLĀH B. ḴOLAYD (or ḴĀLED or ḴOWAYLED) B. SAʿD, Tahirid court poet. Abu’l-ʿAmayṯal boasted of being a client of the Hashimites; raised as a true Beduin in the tribe of Banu’l-Qayn b. Jasr, he fully mastered Arabic. He moved to Khorasan, probably about 193-202/808-17, when Maʾmūn was still there….

ABU’L-ʿANBAS AL-ṢAYMARĪ, MOḤAMMAD B. ESḤĀQ B. ABI’L-ʿANBAS B. AL-MAḠĪRA B. MĀHĀN, astrologer and author, born at Kūfa, 213/828; died 275/889. That he was an Iranian is indicated by his knowledge of the Sasanian astrologers Zaradūšt and Bozorǰmehr as well as by his great-great-grandfather’s name. He served as qāżī of Ṣaymara,…

ABYĀNA, a remarkable village in the Barz-rūd subdistrict (dehestān) in Naṭanz šahrestān, 38 km northeast of Naṭanz (Razmārā, Farhang III, p. 3), and 18 km from the asphalt road connecting Naṭanz to Kāšān (Farhang-e ābādīhā-ye kešvar VII, Tehran, 1969, p. 46). An upland village of about 2,000 population (2,181 according…

ABYĀNAʾĪ, the dialect spoken in the village of Abyāna, one of a number of closely similar dialects spoken in the villages of Kāšān and its neighboring districts, all belonging to the Central Dialects of Iran (or Southern Median). Phonologically, Abyānaʾī exhibits the general features of Northwestern Iranian; it has b-…

ĀBYĀR, title of the person given official charge of the irrigation of ābī “irrigated” lands. He may be a farmer or sharecropper elected by the cultivators, in those villages where farmers work their own land (see Ḵorda-mālek, and Raʿīyat), or he may be appointed by a landlord. The ābyār’s duty…