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FAZEL, Javad (Moḥammad-Javād Fāżel Lārijāni; b. Lārijān, 1914; d. Tehran, 19 August 1961), noted serial writer, and a pioneering figure in simplifying and popularizing religious texts. His father, Mirza Abu’l Ḥasan Fāżel Lārijāni, was an eminent preacher in Āmol (q.v.), in northern Iran, and died when Javad was nine years…

FAŻL NAYRĪZĪ, ABU’L ʿABBĀS b. Ḥātem, mathematician and astronomer (fl. 900 C.E.). His family originated from Nayrīz/Nīrīz, a small town near Shiraz. Almost nothing is known of his personal life. The fact that he dedicated several works to the caliphs al-Moʿtażed (279-89/892-902) and al-Moktafī (289-95/902-8) and also the dedication notice…

FAŻL, b. Šāḏān NĪŠĀPŪRĪ AZDĪ, ABŪ MOḤAMMAD, Imami traditionalist, theologian, and jurisprudent (d. Moḥarram 260/October-November 873). After studying with his father Šāḏān b. Ḵalīl (according to several sources, Ḵalīl was Šāḏān’s laqab; see Moḥaddeṯ Ormavī, pp. 44-48), Fażl moved as a young man from Persia to Baghdad, where he met…

FAŻL, b. SAHL b. Zādānfarrūḵ (d. 202/818), high official of the early ʿAbbasids and vizier to the caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 198-218/813-33). His father Sahl was a Zoroastrian from the vicinity of Kūfa who became a Muslim and attached himself to the Barmakids (q.v.), seeking employment also for his two sons…

FAŻLĪ NAMANGĀNĪ, ʿABD-AL-KARĪM (d. after 1237/1822), Central Asian bilingual poet (Persian and Chaghatay), taḏkera compiler, and historian. Fażlī spent his childhood and youth in poverty. For a time he was an official in his birthplace, Namangān, and in Tōraqōrḡān, apparently before joining the court of the ruler of Ḵōqand, Moḥammad…

FAŻLĪ, MEḤMED (Moḥammad; or ʿAlī; see Kašf al-ẓonūn II, p. 1506) ÇAĞDAŞLAN Turkish poet, known also as Qara Fażlī (b. ? in Istanbul; d. 971/1563 in Kütahya). His father was a saddler. Fażlī, who does not seem to have received a systematic education, developed his poetic talent by associating himself…

FAŻLŪYA, Amir ABU’L-ʿABBĀS FAŻL, known also as Neẓām-al-Dīn Fażl-Allāh, chief of the Šabānkāra Kurds in Fārs during the 5th/11th century. He was the son of ʿAlī b. Ḥasan b. Ayyūb of the Rāmānī clan of the Šabānkāra and the founder of the line of Šabānkāra rulers in Fārs, which lasted…

FĀʾEQ ḴĀṢṢA, ABU’L-ḤASAN (d. Khorasan 389/999), Turkish eunuch and slave commander of the Samanid army in Transoxania and Khorasan during the closing decades of that dynasty’s power. Except that he was part of the Samanid amirs’ slave guard nothing is known of Fāʾeq’s antecedents, but at the beginning of the…

FEDĀʾĪ (or fedāwī), devotee, a person who offers his life for others or in the service of a particular cause. The term has been used of such devotees affiliated to several religious and political communities and organizations in the Islamic world. In particular, it was applied to the young, self-sacrificing…

FEDĀʾĪ ḴORĀSĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD, b. Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn b. Karbalāʾī Dāwūd (b. ca. 1266/1850; d. 1342/1923), foremost Persian Nezārī Ismaʿili author and poet of modern times, who is referred to as Ḥājī Āḵūnd in the Persian Nezārī community. Fedāʾī was born in Dezbād/Dīzbād or Dezbād-e Bālā (Razmārā, Farhang IX, p. 180), an Ismaʿili…

FEDĀʾĪĀN-E ESLĀM, a Shiʿite fundamentalist group with a strong activist political orientation. It was founded in 1945 by a charismatic figure, Sayyed Mojtabā Mīrlawḥī (b. 1923; d. 1955). Claiming descent from the Safavids who had established the Shiʿite state in Persia in the early 16th century, Mīrlawḥī adopted the princely…