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ESCHATOLOGY iii. Imami Shiʿism It is known that among Islamic doctrinal trends and schools of thought Shiʿism, Imami Shiʿism in particular, has developed eschatological doctrine most fully, to the point at which a good number of general Islamic messianic ideas seem to have originated in one of the numerous Shiʿite…

ESCHATOLOGY iv. In Babism and Bahaism Many of the writings of the Bāb (q.v.) are permeated with Islamic and other eschatological texts and traditions. Individual Babis and Bahais have also compiled testimonia and written “demonstrative treatises” (estedlālīya) to show the fulfillment, in their religion, of apocalyptic and eschatological prophecies (e.g.,…

EṢFAHĀNĪ, ABU’L-ŠAYḴ ABŪ MOḤAMMAD ʿABD-ALLĀH b. Moḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Ḥayyān ḤĀFEẒ ANṢĀRĪ (274-369/887-979), traditionist and Koran commentator, important principally for his Ṭabaqāt al-moḥaddeṯīn. Probably he received the laqab Abu’l-Šayḵ because of the great age (95 or 96) to which he lived. He was born into a learned family of…

ESFAHANI, Jaleh (Žāla Eṣfahāni, b. Esfahan, 1921; d. London, 29 November 2007), female poet and political activist (FIGURE 1). Esfahani (registered as Etal) was born into a land-owning family. She went through primary and secondary education in Behešt Āʾyin School in Esfahan, at the time run by the British missionaries,…

EṢFAHĀNI, MOḤAMMAD MAʿṢUM (محمد معصوم اصفهانی) b. Ḵˇāja ʿAli-Šāh (b. ca. 1597, Isfahan; d. ca. 1647, Ganja), Safavid bureaucrat and historian, whose history entitled the Ḵolāṣat al-siar chronicles the reign of Shah Ṣafi (r. 1038-52/1629-42). Life. The exact dates of Moḥammad Maʿṣum’s birth and death are unknown, but there is evidence…

EṢFAHĀNĪ,ʿABD-AL-ḤASAN (?) b. Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Ḥasan, author of the Ketāb al-bolhān on astrology, magic, divination, and demonology, which he composed around 1400 for Ḥosayn b. Aḥmad b. Moḥammad Erbelī. His autograph copy containing numerous fascinating illustrations is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.  

ESFAND (sepand, sepanj, espanj < Proto-Ir. *svanta; Ar. háarmal, Lat. Peganum harmala; wild rue), a common weed found in Persia, Central Asia, and the adjacent areas (for the the plant’s name in other Iranian languages see Flattery and Schwartz, p. 40). Esfand was well known among the ancient Indo-Iranians. Dioscorides...

ESFANDĪĀR, son of Goštāsp (Av. Vīštāspa-, Mid. Pers. Wištāsp; see GOŠTĀSP), Kayanian prince of Iranian legendary history and hero of Zoroastrian holy wars, best known for his tragic combat with Rostam, the mightiest warrior of Iranian national epic. Esfandīār’s name in Avestan is Spəntōδāta- (Yt. 13.103, Vištāsp yašt 25; cf….

ESFANDĪĀR, one of the seven great clans of Parthian and Sasanian times. Ṭabarī attributed the establishment of these clans to the Kayanian king Goštāsp (q.v.) and applied the epithet al-fahlavī (Parthian) to three of them: Kāren with its seat in Māh Nehāvand, Sūrēn in Seistan, and Esfandīār in Ray. The…

ESFANDĪĀR KHAN BAḴTĪĀRĪ, ṢAMṢĀM-AL-SALṬANA, SARDĀR(-E) ASʿAD (b. mid-19th century, possibly in 1260/1844; d. 1320/1902), important leader of the Baḵtīārī tribe (q.v.) in southwestern Persia and grandfather of Queen Ṯorayyā. Esfandīār Khan was the the eldest son of Ḥosaynqolī Khan, the first and great īlḵānī of the Baḵtīārī, and Bībī Ḵānom….

ESFANDĪĀRĪ, ḤĀJJ MOḤTAŠAM-AL-SALṬANA ḤASAN (b. 18 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1283/23 April 1867; d. 5 Esfand 1323 Š./24 February 1945), politician, governor, and speaker of the Majles. His grandfather, Mīrzā ʿAbd-Allāh Nūrī, was the private secretary of ʿAbbās Mīrzā and his father, Mīrzā Moḥammad Ṣadīq-al-Molk, was a ranking officer at the Ministry of…

ESFARA, a district in the Fergana (Farḡāna, q.v.) valley south of the Jaxartes which extends to the foothills of the Turkestan (Bottamān) range. The city of the same name in Tajikistan (40° 1′ N 70° 4′ E) stands 107 km east of Ḵojand on the Esfara river, which is used…