Explore Iranica

EBN ROSTA, ABŪ ʿALĪ AḤMAD b. ʿOmar (d. after 290/903), Persian author of a geographical compendium. He was from Isfahan, where the name Rosta is attested in this period (Ebn Rosta, I, p. 151; Abū Noʿaym Eṣfahānī, pp. 162, 316), and it was probably there that the book was written….

EBN ŠĀḎĀN, family name of two Imami traditionists. 1. Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Ḥasan (or Ḥosayn) Fāmī Qomī, Imami scholar of the 4th/10th century. Nothing is known about his life. According to Abu’l-Ḥasan b. Bābawayh, author of Taʾrīḵ al-Ray, he transmitted from Moḥammad b. Ḥasan b. Aḥmad b. Walīd…

EBN ŠĀHAWAYH (Šāhūya), ABŪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD b. ʿAlī, a leader and envoy of the Carmatians. In Šawwāl 366/May-June 977 he occupied Kūfa at the head of 1,000 Carmatians supporting the claim of the Buyid Ażod-al-Dawla to the rule of Iraq against that of his cousin ʿEzz-al-Dawla. Later he became the…

EBN SAHLĀN SĀVAJĪ, Qāżī ZAYN-AL-DĪN ʿOMAR (b. Sāva, fl. early 12th century), Persian philosopher and logician. After serving as a judge in his native city, he became disillusioned with public life and moved to Nīšāpūr, where he had more contact with other scholars. He earned his living by copying philosophical…

EBN ŠAHRĀŠŪB, ABŪ JAʿFAR (or Abū ʿAbd-Allāh) ZAYN-AL-DĪN (or ʿEzz-al-Dīn, Rašīd-al-Dīn) MOḤAMMAD b. ʿALī b. Šahrāšūb b. Abī Naṣr b. Abi’l-Jayš (b. Sārī, Māzandarān; d. Aleppo, 22 Šaʿbān 588/2 September 1192), the most illustrious Imami scholar of the 12th century. He was also called, though rarely, Ebn Kīā-Kay from the…

EBN SAʿD, ʿOMAR (k. Kūfa 66/686), commander of the Omayyad troops at Karbalāʾ. Son of the famous Arab general Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ, he had just been made deputy-governor (nāʾeb) of Ray by ʿObayd-Allāh b. Zīād (see EBN ZĪĀD) and was to go to Dastabā to quell a Daylamite rising…

EBN ṬABĀṬABĀ, ABU’L-ḤASAN MOḤAMMAD b. Aḥmad b. Moḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ebrāhīm Eṣfahānī (d. 322/933), poet and critic. An ʿAlawid from the Hasanid line, he was born, brought up, and educated in Isfahan, which, in his days, was a great center of learning. Very little is known about him. It…

EBN ṬĀWŪS, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN ABU’L- FAŻĀʾEL AḤMAD b. Mūsā b. Jaʿfar b. Moḥammad Ḥasanī, Imami scholar. The Banū Ṭāwūs, named after their ancestor Moḥammad Ṭāwūs, were a family of Hasanid šarīfs well established in Ḥella in the 6th/12th century. Aḥmad’s mother was a daughter of the Imami scholar Warrām b. Abu’l-Ferās…

EBN ṬĀWŪS, RAŻĪ-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ b. Mūsā b. Jaʿfar (b. Ḥella, 15 Moḥarram 589/21 January 1193; d. Baghdad, 5 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 664/8 August 1266), Imami author, scholar, and bibliophile, called Ḏu’l-ḥasabayn “possessing two distinctions” because he was descended from both Ḥasan and Ḥosayn b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭāleb. Ebn Ṭāwūs grew up…