Explore Iranica

GOLŠAN, cultural magazine published in the early days of 1296 Š./1917 in Tehran by Sayyed Reżā Yazdi “Amir Reżwāni” (d. 25 Esfand 1314 Š./16 March 1936), first twice a week and from its sixth year three times a week. None of its early issues is available in major libraries. After…

GOLŠAN ALBUM (Moraqqaʿ-e golšan), a sumptuous 11th/17th-century album of paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and engravings by Mughal, Persian, Deccani, Turkish, and European artists in the Golestān Palace Library (the former Ketāb-ḵāna-ye salṭanati), Tehran (no. 1663). It was in Nāṣer-al-Din Shah Qājār’s possession when he was still the crown prince in Tabriz…

GOLŠAN DEHLAVI, Shah SAʿD-ALLĀH, b. Ḵᵛāja Moḥammad-Saʿid (b. 1075/1664, d. 21 Jomādā I 1140/3 January 1728), Naqšbandi Sufi and prolific poet in Persian with the pen name (taḵallosá) Golšan. His ancestors came to India from an Arab country in the Middle East and settled in Gujarat (Ṣabā, p. 690), where…

GOLŠAN-E MORĀD, a history of the Zand Dynasty (1164-1209/1751-94) by Mirzā Moḥammad Abu’l-Ḥasan Ḡaffāri. Ḡaffāri’s father, Mirzā Moʿezz-al-Din Moḥammad, was the governor of Kāšān and Qom under Karim Khan Zand. He had his son trained as a painter, but later let him follow in his footsteps as a secretary and…

GOLŠAN-E RĀZ (The Rose Garden of Mysteries), a concise didactic matnawi in a little over a thousand distichs on the key terms and concepts of Sufism, which has for long served as a principal text of theoretical mysticism in the Persian-speaking and Persian-influenced world. It was written in Šawwāl 717/December…

GOLŠANI ṢĀRUḴĀNI, a 15th-century Turkish poet who also wrote in Persian. His original name is unknown, and virtually no information is available on his life. His nesba of Ṣāruḵāni suggests that he originated in the area of present-day Manisa, and the fact that he went to Šarvān, a destination chosen…

GOLŠANĪ, EBRĀHIM, b. Moḥammad b. Ebrāhim b. Šehāb-al-Din (d. 9 Šawwāl 940/23 April 1534), Sufi poet and the founder of the Golšaniya branch of the Ḵalwati Sufi order. He was probably born in Diārbakr (Moḥyi Golšani, p.13; the tomb of his father, Sheikh Moḥammad Āmedi, is in the Mardin Kapısı…

GOLŠANI, MOḤYI MOḤAMMAD, b. Fatḥ-Allāh b. Abi Ṭāleb, scholar and author in Persian and Turkish and inventor of an artificial language (b. 935/1528-29, d. after 1015/1606-07). Born in Edirne of a family originally from Shiraz, he went in 953/1546 to Istanbul and in 959/1552 to Cairo to join his brother…

GOLŠĀʾIĀN, ʿABBĀSQOLI (b. 1281 Š./1902; d. 1369 Š./1990; Figure 1), civil servant, minister in various cabinets, and governor-general of major provinces in the Pahlavi period. He was born in Tehran into a family connected to the Qajars through blood and service. On the paternal side he was a descendant of…

GOLŠIRI, Hušang (b. Isfahan, March 16, 1938; d. Tehran, June 5, 2000; Figure 1), one of the most significant Persian writers of the second half of 20th century. He came from a working class background in Isfahan; his family lived in Ābādān for several years (1943-1955) while his father worked…

GOLSORḴI (GOLESORḴI), ḴOSROW (b. Rašt 1322 Š./1943; d. Tehran, 1953 Š./1974; Figure 1), poet and revolutionary figure whose defiant stand during his televised show trial, and subsequent execution by firing squad in 1974, enshrined his place in the cultural and political history of modern Persia. Golsorḵi was born into a…

GŌMAL (Gōmāl), designation of four geographical entities: A sub-province (woloswāli) and village in the Paktiā province of eastern Afghanistan; a river originating in the Ḡazni (q.v.) province and flowing southeast through the Wazirestān tribal agency and the Dera Esmāʿil Khan district in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan; and of…