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ḠOLĀT (lit.: exaggerators, sing. ḡāli), an Arabic term originally used by Twelver Shiʿite (eṯnā ʿašariya) heresiographers to designate those dissidents who “exaggerate” the status of the Imams in an undue manner by attributing to them divine qualities. This kind of heresy is generally, though inaccurately, called ḥolul (incarnation) of a…

GOLBADAN BĒGOM (b. ca. 929/1522-23, d. 6 Ramażān 1011/17 Feb. 1603), daughter of Ẓahir-al-Din Moḥammad Bābor (d. 937/1530, q.v.), founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, half sister of Bābor’s successor, Homāyun (d. 963/1556), and author of Homāyun-nāma, the account of the reign of Homāyun. According to her own statement…

GOLČIN GILĀNI, pen name of the poet MAJD-AL-DIN MIR-FAḴRĀʾI (b. Rašt, 11 Dey 1288 Š./1 January 1910; d. London, 29 Āḏar 1351 Š./20 December 1972; Figure 1). His father, Sayyed Mahdi Mir-faḵrāʾi, was a state official originally from Tafreš in central Persia. He was the deputy head of the Department…

GOLČIN MAʿĀNI, AḤMAD (b. Tehran, 1916; d. Mašhad, 2000; Figure 1) literary scholar, bibliographer, and poet. He held various administrative and judicial posts in the Ministry of Justice (1934-59). His considerable knowledge of literary manuscripts was later put to good use when he was transferred to the Majles Library, where…

GOLD. i. In pre-Islamic Persia. ii. In Islamic Persia.   I. IN PRE-ISLAMIC PERSIA The principal periods of gold production in pre-Islamic Persia occur in the late second and early first millennia B.C.E., during the Achaemenid period (6th-4th cent. B.C.E.), and in the early first millennium C.E. While the archaeological…

GOLDEN HORDE, name given to the Mongol Khanate ruled by the descendants of Joči (Juji; d. 624/1226-27), the eldest son of Čengiz (Genghis) Khan (q.v.). Its core was the steppelands north of the Black Sea and the Caspian conquered in 1236-40 by an army under Joči’s son Batu (Bātu), who…

GOLDSMID, Major-General Sir Fredrick John, British scholar, negotiator and arbitrator of Perso-Afghan boundary dispute (b. Milan, 1818; d. Hammersmith, England, 1909). Goldsmid was the son of a British cavalry officer and grandson of a well-known Jewish financier. He was educated in Paris and King’s College, London, and commissioned in 1839…

GOLESTĀN, the title of two Persian newspapers. 1. A news and political journal that began publication in Shiraz in 1297 Š./1918 and was continued with long intervals until 1342 Š./1963; the last issue is numbered 5,276. The first few issues could not be found in any major libraries. Golestān started…

GOLESTĀN TREATY (Treaty of Gulistan), agreement arranged under British auspices to end the Russo-Persian War of 1218-28/1804-13 (Figure 1). The First Russo-Persian War. The origins of the first Russo-Persian War can be traced back to the decision of Tsar Paul to annex Georgia (December 1800) and, after Paul’s assassination (11…

GOLESTĀN-E HONAR, a 16th-century treatise on the art of calligraphy, with brief biographical notices on a selection of past and contemporary calligraphers and artists, by the Safavid author and historian Qāżi Aḥmad b. Šaraf-al-Din Ḥosayn Monši Qomi Ebrāhimi. It is an important primary source for the history of the art…

GOLESTĀN-E SAʿDI, probably the single most influential work of prose in the Persian tradition, completed in 656/1258 by Mošarref-al-Din Moṣleḥ, known as Shaikh Saʿdi of Shiraz (for the confusion about his name, see Ṣafā, III/1, pp. 584-614). It was dedicated to the Salghurid Atabeg in Fārs, Moẓaffar-al-Din Abu Bakr b….