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ELĪFEFENDI, Ḥaṣīrīzāda (b. in Sütlüce, Rajab 1266/May 1850; d. 28 Jomādā I 1345/4 December 1926), Turkish poet and scholar. He was the son of Aḥmad Moḵtār Efendi, the shaikh of the takīya (dervish lodge) at Sütlüce in Istanbul. On 1 Šawwāl 1280/10 March 1864 his father entrusted him to the…

ELĪJĀBAR ŠĪNĀJĀ (Ar. Elīya b. Šīnā; Lat. Elias Nisibenus), prominent Nestorian polyhistor (Nisibis, 975-1049). His work is an important source for Sasanian history. In 1002 he was made bishop of Bēṯ Nuhādrē in Adiabene, and in 1008 metropolitan of Nisibis (Naṣībīn). He wrote in Syriac and Arabic on theological issues,…

EŁIKEAN (Yeqīkīān), GRIGOR E. (1880-1951; pseud. V. Vasakuni, P. Andrēasean, V. Turean, G. Margarean, G. Astłuni, and Hnčʿakean), an active figure in Persian and Armenian politics, the press, and literature during the first half of the 20th century. Ełikean fled oppression in his native Ottoman empire in December 1896. Radicalized,…

ELJIGIDEI (Īlčīktāy, Īljīkdāy), the name of two Mongol generals. 1. An army commander under Čengīz Khan (q.v.), responsible for the destruction of Herat. Upon hearing that the people of Herat had rebelled and killed the governors recently appointed by the Mongols, in Šawwāl 618/November-December 1221 Čengīz Khan dispatched Eljigidei from…

ELM, any of several species of hardy deciduous ornamental or forest trees of the genus Ulmus L. (fam. Ulmaceae), typically called nārvan in Persian. Nomenclature, habitat, and local names. According to J. Zieliński (pp. 1-8), this genus is represented by the following species and hybrids in the area covered by…

ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART (1779-1859), author of an important description of Afghanistan. He was a British Indian official who rose to become governor of Bombay. He was the fourth son of the eleventh Baron Elphinstone, a minor Scottish peer of modest circumstances. Elphinstone obtained a writership in the Bengal Civil Service, arrived…

ELQĀNIĀN, ḤABIB (Habib Elghanian; b. Tehran, 23 Farvardin 1291/5 April 1912; executed Tehran, 19 Ordibehešt 1358/9 May 1979), Jewish merchant, industrialist, and philanthropist, who rose from modest beginnings to become one of Iran’s leading entrepreneurs.  He was born in the ʿUdlājān quarter of Tehran, one of eight siblings (seven sons…

ELTON, Captain JOHN (?-1751), English merchant, seaman and shipbuilder for Nāder Shah Afšār. From 1734 onward the British merchants of the Russia Company were permitted to transit Russia to trade with Persia, crossing the Caspian Sea in Russian vessels. In 1739 Elton, an “enterprising but indiscreet Englishman” (Malcolm, II, p….

ĒLTOTMEŠ, ŠAMS-AL-DĪN (d. 633/1236), first Sultan of Delhi. A member of the Ölberi tribe (for the correct spelling, see Golden) of the Qipčaq, he was enslaved at an early age and purchased in Delhi by Qoṭb-al-Dīn Āybeg, then one of the military commanders in India on behalf of the Ghurid…

ELWELL-SUTTON, LAURENCE PAUL (b. Ballylickey, Cork County, Ireland, 2 June 1912-d. Edinburgh, 2 September 1984), scholar of Islamic and modern Persia (Figure 1). Son of a naval officer, Lt.-Comdr. A. S. Elwell-Sutton, he was a scholar at Winchester College and then studied Arabic at the School of Oriental Studies, University…

ELYMAIS, semi-independent state frequently subject to Parthian domination, which existed between the second century B.C.E. and the early third century C. E. in the territories of Ḵūzestān (Susiana), in southwestern Persia. The earliest reference to the Elymaeans is by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, in a passage preserved…