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AḴŠONVĀR, The imperfect recording in Arabic (Ṭabarī, I, p. 874ff.) of an eastern Middle Iranian term for “king;” it is used as a proper name. The underlying word occurs in Sogdian as ʾxšʾwnδʾr, əxšāwan’ār (literally, “holding power;” see W. B. Henning, Ein Manichäisches Bet- und Beichtbuch, APAW 1936, pp. 95-96;…

AKSU, an important urban oasis on the Silk Road where Buddhism flourished during antiquity. The trade route provided Buddhism (Great Vehicle) with the means to spread from Gandhāra on the Indo-Afghan frontier to the Tarim basin in the 1st century CE. The abundance of cave sanctuaries carved into sandstone cliffs…

AḴTĀJĪ, a term, Mongolian in origin, derived from aḵtā “gelding” and meaning “groom” or, more specifically in the context of the court, “master of the horse.” The word is used in the Secret History of the Mongols (e.g., L. Ligeti, ed., Histoire Secrète des Mongols, Budapest, 1971, pp. 82, 145),…

AḴTAR, a Persian newspaper published in Istanbul by Āqā Moḥammad-Ṭāher Qarāǰadāgī (or Tabrīzī) beginning on 16 Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa 1292/13 January 1876. For many years Aḵtar appeared weekly, and from time to time even more frequently. The first Persian newspaper to be published outside Iran, it was also one of the few…

AḴTAR, AḤMAD BEG GORJĪ, a poet of the era of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qāǰār (1212-50/1797-1834). Hedāyat (Maǰmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ I, pp. 154-55, 319) writes that Aḵtar was originally a Georgian slave under the Safavids and that Solaymān Khan Qāǰār cut off his tongue for his impudence; calling him a “capable poet,” he…

ĀḴŪND (or ĀḴOND), a word of uncertain etymology with the general meaning of religious scholar. Various Persian origins have been proposed for the word. According to Pūrdāvūd (quoted by Moʿīn in the supplementary notes to Borhān-e qāṭeʿ I, p. 21), it is composed of the prefix ā- and -ḵūnd (<...

AḴŪND MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD-KĀẒEM ḴORĀSĀNĪ (1255-1329/1839-1911), Shiʿite religious leader. i. Life and Political Role. ii. His Importance in Oṣūl.   i. Life and Political Role Āḵūnd was the fourth and youngest son of Mollā Ḥosayn, an itinerant preacher from Herat who finally settled in Mašhad; there Āḵūnd was born, received his…

ĀḴŪNDZĀDA (in Soviet usage, AKHUNDOV), MĪRZĀ FATḤ-ʿALĪ (1812-78), Azerbaijani playwright and propagator of alphabet reform; also, one of the earliest and most outspoken atheists to appear in the Islamic world. According to his own autobiographical account (first published in Kaškūl, Baku, 1887, nos. 43-45, and reprinted in M. F. Akhundov,…

AKVĀN-E DĪV, the demon Akvān, who was killed by Rostam. According to the Šāh-nāma (ed. Mohl, vol. 3, pp. 270ff.) Akvān first confronts Rostam in the shape of a wild ass, large, powerful, with a yellow hide and a black stripe from mane to tail. Rostam chases him on horseback…

AḴYĀR (pl. of Arabic ḵayyer), “the chosen” (Persian, bargozīdagān), a category sometimes encountered in accounts given by Sufi writers of the unseen hierarchy known as reǰāl al-ḡayb (“men of the unseen”). The number of the aḵyār and the functions they are supposed to fulfill differ according to various sources. Hoǰvīrī…

ĀL, a folkloric being that personifies puerperal fever; the name apparently derives from Iranian āl “red.” Although belief in a child-stealing witch that fits the āl’s description is attested earliest in ancient Mesopotamia, where it was called Lamaštum, the name āl does not derive from Babylonian ālu, a kind of…