Explore Iranica

FARĪDAN, a county (šahrestān) located at the foot of the Zagros mountains in the western part of Isfahan province, bordered on the north by Ḵᵛānsār, on the northwest by Alīgūdarz (in Lorestān province), on the west by the county of Farīdūn-æahr, on the east by Najafābād, and on the south…

FARḴĀR, river, valley, and administrative district (woloswālī), in Taḵār province, northeastern Afghanistan. The river, which drains the central western slope of the Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad range of the Hindu Kush, has different names over its course of 261 km: Āb-e Wār, Daryā-ye Qondoz, Rōd-e Warsaj, Rōd-e Orsajāb, Daryā-ye Farḵār, Daryā-ye Ṭālaqān,…

FARMĀN (OPers. framānā, Mid. Pers. framān; Arabized pl. farāmīn), decree, command, order, judgement. In historical as well as contemporary administrative and political usage the term often denotes a royal or governmental decree, that is a public and legislative document promulgated in the name of the ruler or another person (e.g.,…

FARMĀNFARMĀ (lit. “giver of an order,” i.e., ruler, commander), an epithet with three usages in the Safavid and Qajar periods. 1. As a general form of address, farmānfarmā was used by the Safavid shahs and their officials in addressing the European monarchs, interchangeably with farmānravā and farmānda (see, inter alia,…

FARMĀNFARMĀ, FEREYDŪN MĪRZĀ (d. Mašhad, 1272/1854; Dīvānbeygī, p. 1314), fifth son of the Qajar prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā (q.v.) and elder brother of Solṭān Morād Mīrzā Ḥosām-al-Salṭana. Having been his father’s favorite since childhood, Fereydūn Mīrzā was named vice-governor of Azerbaijan when ʿAbbās Mīrzā went to quell a rebellion in Khorasan…

FARMĀNFARMĀ, FĪRŪZ MĪRZĀ NOṢRAT-AL-DAWLA (1233-29 Jomadā II 1303/1817-4 April 1886; Figure 1), the sixteenth son of ʿAbbās Mīrzā and grandson of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (qq.v.). His political and military career flourished in the reign of his brother Moḥammad Shah (1250-64/1834-48) and continued under his nephew Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1313/1848-96), under whom he…

FARMĀNFARMĀ, ḤOSAYN-ʿALĪ MĪRZĀ (b. Lārījān, 12 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1203/2 Sept. 1789; d. Tehran, 26 Rabīʿ I 1251/22 July 1835), the fifth son of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (r. 1212-50/1797-1834), long-time governor of Fārs, and briefly the self-styled king of Persia. His mother, Badr-e Jahān Ḵānom, was the daughter of Qāder Khan, an amir…

FARMĀNFARMĀ, MAḤMŪD KHAN NĀṢER-AL-MOLK (b. ca. 1244-45/1828-29, d. Tehran, 8 Rabīʿ II 1305/12 December 1887; Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, Rūznāma-ye ḵāṭerāt, p. 530; Bāmdād, Rejāl IV, p. 54), high-ranking official in the reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1313/1848-96). He was a member of the Qaragözlu tribe, which resided near Hamadān and produced many statesmen,…

FARMĀNFARMĀ, ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN MĪRZĀ (b. Tehran, 1274/1858; d. Tehran, 1318 Š./1939; Plate I), Qajar prince-governor, military commander, skillful politician, head of various ministries, and prime minister. He was the second son of the prince-governor Fīrūz Mīrzā Noṣrat-al-Dawla Farmānfarmā (q.v.), himself the sixteenth son of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā by a…

FARMING in Persia. This article reviews major characteristics and trends of farming in Persia during the period from 1960-1995. In the mid-1990s Persian agriculture accounted for over 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 25 percent of employment, and 33 percent of non-oil exports. It also met 75 percent…