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IL-KHANIDS iii. BOOK ILLUSTRATION The Il-khanid period is no doubt the historical moment during which the art of painting, in particular in illustrated manuscripts, witnessed a dramatic increase in number, subject matter, artistic output, and patronage as compared to the late Saljuq epoch in Persia, to the late ʿAbbasid period…

IL-KHANIDS iv. CERAMICS This entry deals with glazed wares and tiles of the so-called “Sultanabad” (Solṭānābād) group, lajvardina (< Pers. lājvard “lapis lazuli”) wares, and luster wares produced in the Il-khanid period. The period extends from the fall of Baghdad in 1258 to the last dated luster tiles made in...

ILAK-KHANIDS (or Qara-khanids), the first Muslim Turkic dynasty that ruled in Central Asia from the Tarim basin to the Oxus river, from the mid-late 10th century until the beginning of the 13th. The name Ilak-khanids or Ilek Khans, like the more common designation nowadays, Qara-khanids, derived from the titulature of…

ILĀM, a province, sub-province, and town in western Iran. The name “Ilām” was given to the above localities for the first time in 1936, after the breakdown of armed resistance of the Lor tribes and establishment of the authority of the central government during the Reza Shah era. The name…

ILĀM i. GEOGRAPHY THE PROVINCE Ilām is one of the western provinces (ostāns) of Iran; and in the National Physical Plan (Ṭarḥ-e kā1bodi-e melli), which divides the country into 10 regions, it is part of the Zagros region (Figure 1). This region includes the provinces of Ilām, Kermānšāhān, Lorestān, and…

ILĀM iii. POPULATION ILĀM PROVINCE POPULATION Boundaries and internal division. According to the first national census of 1956, the present province (ostān) of Ilām used to be a sub-province (šahrestān) of the province of Kermānšāhān. In the census of 1966 it became a governerate-general (farmāndāri-e koll), and in the census…

ILĀQ, medieval name of an area in what is now Uzbekistan, to the south of Tashkent along the middle reaches of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) river. In the north Ilāq bordered on the Šāš area and Chatkal mountains of the Tien Shan range; in the west it was bounded by…

ILĀQI, SAYYED ŠARAF-AL-ZAMĀN (Bayhaqi; Šaraf-al-Din, in Ebn Abi Oṣaybeʿa) ABU ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD b. Yusof, follower of Avicenna and author in medicine, science, and philosophy. He died at an uncertain age in the battle of Qaṭvān, Sultan Sanjar’s catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Qara Khitay in 536/1141 (thus his…

Ilāri title Ilāri genre/topic Yusof and Ahmad story language Turkmen performer Kalife Naẓarli Mahjubi, voice and dotār Bahrām Berdikor, qijak instrument Voice; Dotār; Qijak composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 3:18 source Epics in Iranian…

ILBĀRS KHAN, name of two rulers of Ḵᵛārazm in the 16th and 18th centuries. (1) Ilbārs Khan b. Buräkä (or Bürgä), from the ʿArab-šāhi (q.v.) branch of the Jochids, was the founder of the dynasty which ruled Ḵᵛārazm from 1511 to the end of the 17th century. This branch of…

ILEDONG, site in Central Asia. Its location is not quite certain. The name itself (Eastern Turkish for “a road-sign hillock”) is no help in the identification, as it is a factual description rather than a real place name, iles being “road signs, established on every dominant height or hill in…

ILLUMINATIONISM or Illuminationist Philosophy (Ar. al-ḥekma/al-falsafa al-ešrāqiya; Pers. falsafa-ye ešrāqi), first introduced in the 12th century as a complete, reconstructed system distinct both from the Peripatetic philosophy (falsafa-ye maššāʾi) of Avicenna (d. 1037) and from theological philosophy (kalām-e falsafi). Most medieval historians as well as specialist historians of philosophy concur…