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FARZĀN, Sayyed Moḥammad (b. near Brijand, 1273 Š./1894; d. Bābolsar, 23 Farvardin 1349 Š./11 April 1970), an eminent scholar of classical literature. Farzān received his elementary education from his father, who died while Sayyed Mohammad was eleven years old. Farzān and his mother and brother left their village for Brijand,…

FASĀ i. Geography and History ii. Tall-e Żaḥḥāk

FASĀ i. Geography and History  The sub-province (šahrestān) of Fasā, with an area of ca. 3,820 km2, is bounded to the north by the šahrestāns of Eṣṭahbān/Estahbān (q.v.) and Shiraz, to the east by Eṣṭahbān and Dārāb (q.v.), to the south by Dārāb and Jahrom (q.v.), and to the west by…

FASĀ ii. Tall-e Żaḥḥāk Tall-e Żaḥḥāk (or Żohāk) is an appellation of no great age given to an expansive archeological site on the Fasā plain in southern Fārs, 130 km south of Shiraz and 3 km southeast of the modern town of Fasā. More specifically, this topynym identifies a tell…

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FASIH, Esma’il (Esmāʿil Faṣiḥ, a.k.a. Nāṣer; b. Tehran, 21 February 1935; d. Tehran, 15 July 2009), eminent Persian novelist and translator (Figure 1).  i. Life Fasih was born in Bāzārča-ye Darḵungāh, in the neighborhood of Galubandak, in the then central precincts of Tehran. He was the last child of Arbāb…

FAṢĪḤĪ HERAVĪ, MĪRZĀ FAṢĪḤ-AL-DĪN, b. Abu’l-Makārem b. Mawlānā Mīrjān Anṣārī, poet of the 11th/17th century (b. ca. 987/1579, d. 1049/1639). Faṣīḥī belonged to a noble family of Herat, which traced its lineage back to Ḵᵛāja ʿAbd-Allāh Anṣārī (d. 481/1088, q.v.). During the invasion of Khorasan in 930/1523 by ʿObayd-Allāh Khan,…

FASMER (VASMER), RICHARD RICHARDOVICH (b. 9 October 1858, St. Petersburg; d. 22 February 1938), eminent Russian numismatist. Fasmer, of German descent, was born Richard Wilhelm Georg, son of a German merchant. He matriculated in the Department of Philosophy at Leipzig University in 1906. The following year, he began studies in…

FASTING in Persia. See also FESTIVALS. i. Among Zoroastrians, Manicheans, and Bahais. ii. In Sunni and Shiʿite Islam.   i. AMONG ZOROASTRIANS, MANICHEANS, AND BAHAIS Both individually and communally, fasting is typically a religious exercise—employed by devotees as means of supplication to the will of God, preparation for rites of…

FATALISM in the Islamic Period. The concept of fatalism as commonly used in Islamic philosophy and Persian literature denotes the belief in the pre-ordained Decree of God (qażā wa qadar), according to which whatever happens to human beings or in the whole universe has been pre-determined by the will and…

FATĀWĪ-E ʿĀLAMGĪRĪ, abridged Persian translation by Qāżī Najm-al-Dīn Khan Kākorī (d. 1229/1814) of a six-volume Arabic work on Hanafite law (ed. Būlāq, 1276/1859) considered the authoritative compendium of religious law, policy, and practice in India. The original text, known also as Fatāwī-e hendīya (Cat. Bankipore XIX/1, p. 63), was prepared…

FĀTEḤ, MOṢṬAFĀ (b. Isfahan, 7 Ramażān 1313/20 February 1896; d. London, 8 Šahrīvar 1357/30 August 1978), a deputy director-general of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (q.v.) and banker. He was born to Hājj Aḥmad Khan Fāteḥ-al-Molk, a land-owner, army officer, and member of the Majles. He went to elementary school in…

FĀṬEMA, daughter of the Prophet Moḥammad. i. In history and Shiʿite hagiography. ii. In myth, folklore, and popular devotion. i. IN HISTORY AND SHIʿITE HAGIOGRAPHY The diametrically opposed views of Henri Lammens, who made the first attempt at a biography of Fāṭema, providing a pale, even negative picture, and Louis…