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DAVID OF ASHBY (fl. 1260-75), Dominican friar and visitor to Il-khanid Persia. Early in 1260 he was sent from Acre by Thomas Agni di Lentino, bishop of Bethlehem and papal legate to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on a diplomatic mission to the Mongol prince and future Il-khan Hulāgu (Hülegü, r….

DAVID, JACOB (b. Seyr village, 15 November 1873; d. Chicago, 26 May 1967), Assyrian pastor and relief worker. After completing his primary education in his home village, west of Urmia, he entered Qalla, the American Presbyterian missionary boarding school for boys in Urmia. Following completion of secondary school, he traveled to the…

DAWĀMĪ, ʿABD-ALLĀH (b. Ṭā near Tafreš, 1309/1891; d. Tehran, 20 Dey 1359 Š./10 January 1981), a master of classical Persian vocal music with a perfect command of the radīf (repertoire), as well as a gifted player of the Persian drum (tonbak) and a virtuoso of rhythmic (żarbī) pieces and songs…

DAWĀNUS, the name of a man seen in the other world by Ardā Wirāz, as described in both the Middle Persian and the Zoroastrian Persian versions of the Ardā Wirāz-nāmag (Jamaspji Asa, pp. 63-64; ed. Vahman, pp. 204-5; ed. Kargar, pp. 54-55).  A slightly different version of the Dawānus story…

DAWĀT (inkwell), a utilitarian receptacle that also served as a symbol or metaphor for the instrument of state, with a long history in Islamic Persia (see DAWĀ(T)DĀR). As a container for ink the dawāt could be attached to, or set within, a pencase (qalamdān); free standing; or carried suspended from…

DAWĀ(T)DĀR (lit., “keeper, bearer of [the royal] inkwell or inkstand”), title of various officials in medieval Islamic states. At an early stage in the development of the vizierate under the ʿAbbasid caliphs the vizier bore an inkstand (dawāt) as emblem of his office; it was usually suspended from the wrist…

DAWLATĀBĀD, name of several localities in Afghanistan that have grown up around civil or military government buildings. Some have never developed into large settlements. For example, a former Nūrzay encampment 72 km northeast of Farāh, formerly a fording place across the Farāhrūd and a toll station on the caravan road…

DAWLATĀBĀDĪ, SAYYED YAḤYĀ (b. Daw-latābād near Isfahan, 17 Rajab 1279/8 January 1863, d. Tehran, 4 Ābān 1318 Š./26 October 1939), celebrated educator, political activist, and memoirist of the constitutional and postconstitutional periods. Yaḥyā was the second of the five sons of an affluent family of landowning ʿolamāʾ. His father, Ḥājj…

DAWLATĀBĀDĪ,SAYYED ʿALĪ-MOḤAMMAD (b. Dawlatābād, 1341/1868, d. Tehran, Šawwāl 1341/May-June 1923), prominent politician and deputy of the Persian parliament. He was the third son of Ḥājj Sayyed Mīrzā Hādī Dawlatābādī, reputed to have been leader of the Azalī Babis (Tārīḵ-e bīdārī, ed. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, 2nd ed., I, p. 649), and a…

DAWLATĀBĀDĪ, ṢEDDĪQA (b. Isfahan, 1300/1883, d. Tehran, 6 Mordād 1340 Š./28 July 1961), journalist, educator, and pioneer in the movement to emancipate women in Persia. Her mother, Ḵātema, was descended from a family of local ʿolamāʾ, and her father, Mīrzā Hādī Dawlatābādī, was a prominent mojtahed (theologian) of Isfahan. Ṣeddīqa…

DAWLATḴĒL, tribal name common among the eastern Pashtun at various levels of tribal segmentation, not to be confused with Dawlatzī. There are minor sections of Dawlatḵēl within the Sadōzī Otmānzī (ʿOṯmānzī) Mandaṛ in the northeastern extremity of the Peshawar basin, the Otmānḵēl (ʿOṯmānḵēl) in the lower Swat valley, the pashtunized…

DAWLATŠĀH b. Amīr ʿAlāʾ-al-Dawla Boḵtīšāh Ḡāzī SAMARQANDĪ, AMĪR (b. ca. 842/1438, d. 900/1494 or 913/1507), author of Taḏkerat al-šoʿarāʾ (Memorial of poets), a book containing biographies of about 150 poets with specimens of their poetry, as well as historical information. Dawlatšāh was one of the few authors before the 16th…

DAWLATŠĀH, MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ MĪRZĀ (1203-37/1789-1821), eldest son of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (1212-50/1797-1834) and powerful prince-governor of western provinces of Persia. He was born in the resort village of Navā in Māzandarān to Zībā-čehr Ḵānom, a Georgian (Čūš) slave girl of the Tzicara Chwili family owned by Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah, and was senior by seven…