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ḤELLI, NAJM-AL-DIN ABU’L-QĀSEM JAʿFAR b. Ḥasan b. Abi Zakariyā Yaḥyā b. Ḥasan b. Saʿid Hoḏali, known as Moḥaqqeq or Moḥaqqeq-e awwal, a leading jurist of the Twelver Shiʿite school of Ḥella. He was born in about 602/1205-06 and spent most of his life in his home town. He studied with…

HELMAND RIVER (Av. Haētumant; modern usage, Hirmand, Halmand), the border river of Afghanistan and Persia. It originates in the mountains in the Hazārajāt (q.v) and flows into the Sistān in southeastern Persia and finally drains into the Hāmun Lake (q.v.).   i. Geography. ii. In Zoroastrian tradition. iii. In the…

HELMAND RIVER i. GEOGRAPHY At approximately 1,300 km (800 miles), the Helmand River is the longest river in Afghanistan. Originating from the Koh-e Bābā heights of the Hindu Kush (q.v.) mountain range (about 40 km west of Kabul), the Helmand receives five tributaries—Kajrud (Kudrud), Arḡandāb, Terin, Arḡastān, and Tarnak. Draining…

HELMAND RIVER ii. IN ZOROASTRIAN TRADITION According to Avestan geography, the region of the Haētumant River extends in a southwest direction from the point of confluence of the Arḡandāb with the Helmand (Gnoli, 1980, p. 66) and since relatively ancient times has had an important position within the Zoroastrian tradition….

HELMAND RIVER iii. IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD The early Islamic geographers refer variously to the Helmand River as Hendmand (Eṣṭaḵri, pp. 242-45; Yā-qut, Boldān [Beirut] V, p. 418); Hilmand (Ebn Ḥawqal, p. 417); Hirmid (Moqaddasi, pp. 304, 329); Hidmand (Ḥodud al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, pp. 73, 110); Hermand or Hirmand, the…

HELMAND RIVER iv. IN THE LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES The late 19th and 20th centuries saw a number of colonial and national schemes, including boundary commisions and large scale irrigation projects, that aimed to demarcate the Iran-Afghan borderlands. Describing the economic outlook of the region, George P. Tate, surveyor…

HELMET. This subject will be treated in the following separate entries: i. In pre-Islamic Iran. ii. In the Islamic period. See Supplement.  

HELMET i. IN PRE-ISLAMIC IRAN Helmets came into use in the Middle East at a very early date. Among the oldest recovered specimens are Sumerian bronze helmets of the mid–3rd millennium B.C.E. from the royal cemetery of Ur. During the 9th–7th centuries B.C.E., bronze and iron helmets of different types…

HELMET ii. IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD By the time the Muslims conquered the Iranian world (the territory now occupied by Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Azerbaijan), two helmet types were already known: egg-shaped and conical. The egg-shaped helmet had developed during the Parthian (ca. 247 BCE- 224 CE) and…

ḤELMI, RAFIQ, Kurdish historian, poet, and political activist (b. Kirkuk, 1898; d. Baghdad, 4 August 1960). He was the son of Ṣāleḥ ʿAbd-Allāh, an officer in the Ottoman army. Ḥelmi began school in Solaymāniya and Baghdad and then went to the Military Academy and the Technical School of Istanbul, where…

ḤELYAT AL-MOTTAQIN (“The Adornment of the Godfearing”), a compendious work that has remained highly popular, by the Shiʿite traditionist Mollā Moḥammad-Bāqer Majlesi (d.1110/1699), on recommended customs, norms, and modes of behavior. It consists chiefly of traditions attributed to the Prophet and the Imams, grouped according to topic. The great majority…

HEMIN MOKRIĀNI, the pen name of Sayyed Moḥammad Amini Šayḵ-al-Eslām Mokri, Kurdish poet and journalist (b. Lāčin, near Mahābād, 1921, d. Urmia, 16 April 1986). After completing his studies at Shaikh Borhān’s ḵānaqāh in Šarafkand, Hemin joined the Kurdish Resurrection Party (Komala-ye Jiānawa-ye Kordestān), founded in 1942. Together with his…

HENDUŠĀH B. SANJAR B. ʿABD-ALLAH SAḤEBI KIRANI, the little-known author of a Persian history called the Tajāreb al-salaf (fl. first half of the 8th/14th century). Virtually nothing is known of his life or when he was born and died. Browne (1924, p. 246 n. 1) thought that the nesba Ṣāḥebi…