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ABAQA (or ABAḠA, “paternal uncle” in Mongolian; ABĀQĀ in Persian and Arabic), eldest son and first successor of the Il-khan Hülegü (Hūlāgū). He was born of Yesüṇčin Ḵātūn in Jomādā I, 631/February, 1234 in Mongolia, and accompanied his father on his great expedition to the west. At the outbreak of…

ABARKĀVĀN, late Sasanian name of Qešm (q.v.) island in the Straits of Hormoz. It occurs in this form (Balaḏorī, Fotūḥ, p. 386) and as Abarkāfān (Nozhat al-qolūb, p. 186), Barkāvān (Ebn Ḥawqal, p. 183; Ebn al-Aṯīr, III, p. 41), Banū Kāvān (Masʿūdī, Morūǰ I, p. 240; Ebn al-Balḵī, pp. 113-14),…

ABARQOBĀḎ, an ancient town of lower Iraq between Baṣra and Vāseṭ, to the east of the Tigris, in the region adjacent to Ahvāz, known in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times as Mēšūn (Mid. Pers. form) or Maysān/Mayšān (Syriac and Arabic forms). The correct form of the town name is given…

ABARQŪH (or ABARQŪYA), a town in northern Fārs; it was important in medieval times, but, being off the main routes, it is now largely decayed. i. History. ii. Monuments.

ABARQŪH (or ABARQŪYA), a town in northern Fārs; it was important in medieval times, but, being off the main routes, it is now largely decayed. i. History The Islamic geographers of the 4th/10th century describe Abarqūh as lying in the Shiraz-Isfahan-Eṣṭaḵr road, at a point where another road led off…

ABARQŪH (or ABARQŪYA), a town in northern Fārs; it was important in medieval times, but, being off the main routes, it is now largely decayed. ii. Monuments Numerous pre-Safavid monuments survive in Abarqūh, but the lack of important later buildings suggests a sharp decline in the city’s wealth, probably resulting…

ABARŠAHR, name of Nīšāpūr province in western Khorasan. From the early Sasanian period, Nīšāpūr, which was founded or rebuilt by Šāpūr I in the first years of his reign, was the administrative center of the province. On a Sasanian clay sealing, the names of Abaršahr and Nīšāpūr appear together. In…

ABARSĀM (APURSĀM in Middle Persian), a dignitary and high-ranking officeholder of the court of the Sasanian king Ardašīr I (A.D. 226-42). According to Ṭabarī (I, pp. 816, 818; cf. Ebn al-Aṯīr, I, p. 247), Abarsām became Ardašīr’s chief minister (vuzurgframaḏār ; see Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, p. 9, n. 2,…

ABARSĒN, Middle Persian form of the Avestan name Upāiri.saēna, designating the Hindu Kush mountains (Average. iškata; Mid. Pers. kōf, gar) of central and eastern Afghanistan. Yašt 19.3 lists it as one of the ranges envisaged as spurs of the High Harā (see Alborz), which, as the mythical world-encircling range, is…

ABASKŪN (ĀBASKŪN), a port of the medieval period on the southwest shore of the Caspian Sea in Gorgān province. Perhaps it should be connected with the Sōkanda river in ancient Hyrcania mentioned by Ptolemy (Geographia 6.9.2.). It seems to have been at or near the mouth of the Gorgān river…

ABBĀ (“Father”) ISAIAH, late 4th century A.D., author of Christian ascetical texts; from these it appears that he was a hermit who lived in the desert of Scete in Egypt, of whom several anecdotes are told in the Apophthegmata patrum (see, e.g., Figure 1).  The generally accepted identification of him with…

Abbās Khāni – Navā title Abbās Khāni – Navā genre/topic Ta‘zia language   performer Seyyed Hamze Hoseyni instrument Voice composer   author/poet   first line of poem nešin tā konam Ḵod be in āškār   recorded by Jahāngir Nasir Ašrafi place of recording   date of recording 1992-1999 duration 5…