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GOLESTĀNA, ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Mirzā MOḤAMMAD, b. Šāh Abu Torāb Moḥammad-ʿAli (d. 1110/1698-99), prominent religious scholar of the Safavid period, a scion of the Golestāna family of Ḥosayni sayyeds in Isfahan. Proficient in both the rational and the transmitted sciences, he was particularly renowned for his mastery of Hadith and for a…

GOLESTĀNA, ʿALI-AKBAR (b. 1274/1857-58; d. 1319/1901; Figure 1), a renowned calligrapher, scholar, and mystic of late 19th century Persia. He was born into the prominent Sādāt-Golestāna family in 1274/1857-58 and received his early training in Isfahan. A religious man, Golestāna devoted the first half of his life to disseminating Sufi teachings…

GOLGUN, FARID-AL-DAWLA Mirzā MOḤAMMAD-ḤASAN KHAN HAMADĀNI (1256-1316 Š./1877-1937), constitutionalist and journalist. His father was Mirzā Esmāʿil Mostašār, the brother of Ḥājj Sayyed Esḥāq, the influential religious leader of Hamadān. After the overthrow of the constitutional government by Moḥammad-ʿAli Shah in June 1908 (see CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION ii), Farid-al-Dawla joined the branch…

GOLHĀ, BARNĀMA-YE, (lit. “Flowers Program”), a series of radio programs which was on the air for almost twenty-three years (Farvardin 1335-Esfand 1357 Š./March 1956 to February 1979) and which aimed at illustrating the perennial thematic and aesthetic relationships between poetry and traditional music (musiqi-e sonnati or aṣil) in Persian culture…

GOLINDUCH (GOLEN-DOḴT), female Christian martyr (d. 13 July 591). Golinduch (perhaps originally Golān-doḵt, “daughter of roses”) was a Zoroastrian woman of noble birth who was converted to Christianity by some Christian prisoners of war in her husband’s service (see CHRISTIANITY i). After her husband’s death in battle, she was baptized…

GOLIUS, JACOBUS (latinized form of the Dutch name Jacob Gool), Dutch orientalist (b. The Hague, 1596; d. Leiden, 28 September 1667), who descended from a family of patricians in the city of Leiden. From 1612 onwards he read medicine, mathematics, and astronomy at Leiden University. His interest in the scientific…

GOLḴANI, MOḤAMMAD ŠARIF (1770s-1827), poet and satirist from Kokand (Ḵōqand), bilingual in Persian and Chaghatay (see CHAGHATAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE). Little is known about the life of Golḵani. His given name was Moḥammad-Šarif, but he is better known simply as Golḵani, one of his pen-names (taḵalloṣ). He wrote under the…

GOLPAR, any of several perennial aromatic herbaceous plants of the genus Heracleum L. (fam. Umbelliferae) growing wild in humid alpine regions in Persia and some adjacent areas, particularly the following five species, the first four being restricted to Persia (see Mandenova, pp. 492-502, 505; Mozaffarian, 1996, no. 3857). Because the…

GOLPĀYAGĀN (or GOLPĀYEGĀN), a šahrestān (county) and town located in Isfahan province, bordered on the east by the county of Barḵᵛār and Meyma, on the south by Ḵᵛānsār county, on the north by the counties of Maḥallāt and Ḵomeyn (Central province), and on the west by Aligudarz county (province of…

GOLPĀYAGĀNI, Ayatollah Sayyed MOḤAMMAD-REŻĀ b. Moḥammad-Bāqer (b. 8 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 1316/20 March 1899; d. 24 Jomādā II 1414/8 December 1993; ; Figure 1), a chief figure in the contemporary Shiʿite clerical hierarchy (marjaʿiyat-e taqlid), who took a moderate stand in the opposition to what was considered the state’s disregard for Islamic…

GÖLPINARLI, ABDÜLBAKI, Turkish scholar noted in particular for his studies of the Turkish Sufi orders (b. Istanbul, 10 Ramażān 1317/12 January 1900; d. Istanbul, 25 August 1982; Figure 1). Golpınarlı’s father, Ahmed Ãgâh Efendi, had migrated to Bursa from the region of Ganja in Azerbaijan and eventually became a noted…

GOLŠAHRI (GÜLŞEHRÎ), SOLAYMĀN, Ottoman Sufi and poet who wrote in Persian and Turkish. He was from the city of Golšahri, the name of which appears on his works in Persian, and which is known today as Kırşehir. Next to nothing is known about his life; it, however, can be deduced…