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DŪZAḴ (Av. dužaŋhu: Yt. 19.44, daožahu-: Vd. 19.47; OIr. *daušaxva-; Mid. Pers. dwšḥwˈ/došaxw/dušox; Inscriptional Middle Persian dwšḥwy; Man. Mid. Pers. dwšwx/dušox; Man. Parth. dwjx/dōžax; Arm. lw. džox; lit., “evil existence”) “hell”. In the Zoroastrian doctrine of the future life dūzakò consists of a series of grades, extending to the restoration…

DUŽYĀIRYA (Av.; OPers. dušiyāra; AirWb., col. 759; Kent, Old Persian, p. 192), a compound (Duchesne-Guillemin, 1936, pp. 145, 192) meaning basically “bad year” or “bad harvest,” attested only in Tištar Yašt (Yt. 8), a hymn dedicated to the star Sirius (Tištriia) that incorporates the myth of the liberation of the…

ḎU’L-FAQĀR (lit., “provided with notches, grooves, vertebrae”), the “miraculous sword” of Imam ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭāleb, with two blades or points, which became a symbol of his courage on the battlefield. According to some sources, it was taken as booty at the battle of Badr (2/624) by the Prophet Moḥammad,…

ḎU’L-FAQĀR KHAN AFŠĀR, governor (ḥākem) of Ḵamsa province (ca. 1177-94/1763-80) under the Zand dynasty. Of the Imīrlū clan of Afšārs, which had long been established at Zanjān, the chief city of the province, Ḏu’l-Faqār was evidently already a local leader of some consequence before Karīm Khan Zand (1163-93/1750-79), on his…

ḎU’L-FAQĀR ŠĪRVĀNĪ, MALEK-AL-ŠOʿARĀ QEWĀM-AL-DĪN ḤOSAYN b. Ṣadr-al-Dīn ʿAlī (d. ca. 691/1291), Persian poet and panegyrist of the Il-khanid period. Through the intercession of the vizier Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad Māstarī he obtained the patronage of Atābak Yūsofšāh I of the Fażlūya branch of the Atābakān-e Lorestān; Yūsofšāh was governor of Ḵūzestān, Kūhgīlūya,…

ḎU’L-JANĀḤ, Imam Ḥosayn’s winged horse, known from popular literature and rituals. Ḏu’l-Janāḥ was mentioned in medieval narratives of Ḥosayn’s martyrdom at Karbalāʾ (maqātel), for example, Ebn Aʿṯam Kūfī’s 9th-century Ketāb al-fotūḥ and al-Loḥūf by Ebn Ṭāʾūs Ṭāʾūsī (d. 664/1266), which became sources for later Turkish and Persian maqtal-nāmas. In al-Loḥūf…

ḎU’L-LESĀNAYN “possessor of two tongues,” epithet often bestowed upon bilingual poets. It appears to have originated in Arabic as an honorific indicating unusual eloquence in a single language, Arabic, as was the case with Mowallah b. Kaṯīf, a Companion of the Prophet (Sami, p. 2228). Poets writing in both Arabic…

ḎU’L-NŪN MEṢRĪ, ABU’L-FAYŻ ṮAWBĀN b. Ebrāhīm (b. Aḵmīm in Upper Egypt, ca. 175/791, d. Jīza [Giza], between 245 and 248/859 and 862), early Sufi master. He lived mainly in Lower Egypt (Meṣr) and is known to have visited Mecca and possibly also Yemen, as well as traveling extensively in Palestine…

ḎU’L-QADR (arabicized form of Turk. Dulgadır), a Ḡozz tribe (Taḏkerat al-molūk, ed. Minorsky, p. 194) that became established mainly in southeastern Anatolia under the Saljuqs. In 738/1337 one of their leaders, Zayn-al-Dīn Qarāja b. Ḏu’l-Qadr, founded a principality incorporating the towns of Albestān and Marʿaš. These princes were clients first…

ḎU’L-RĪĀSATAYN, ḤĀJJ MĪRZĀ ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN MŪNES-ʿALĪŠĀH (b. Shiraz, 1290/1873, d. Tehran, 25 Ḵordād 1332 Š./15 June 1953), for thirty years leader (qoṭb) of a principal branch of the Neʿmatallāhī Sufi order. The title Ḏū’l-Rīāsatayn (“possessor of two kinds of supremacy”) refers to his reportedly exceptional command of both the exoteric and…

DVIN, city in Armenia located at 40° N, 44° 41´ E, north of Artaxata on the left bank of the Azat (Garnīčāī), about 35 km south of the present Armenian capital at Yerevan. It remained a significant center from the Sasanian period to the 13th century, and its pleasant climate was…