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ĀL-E KART, or perhaps ĀL-E KORT, an east Iranian dynasty (643-791/1245-1389). Their capital was at Herat, and their realm initially comprised Sabzavār (now Šendand), Ḡūr, Sīstān, Balḵ, and Kabol. Their importance thus lies mainly in their contribution to the history of what is now western and central Afghanistan. In the…

ĀL-E KAṮĪR, an Arab tribe of Ḵūzestān composed of two subtribes, Bayt Saʿd and Bayt Karīm and inhabiting two sectors of Šūš and Dezfūl. The origin of the name is unknown; they themselves claim that they are the descendants of Jaʿfar Barmakī, and because of their large population are known…

ĀL-E MĀKŪLĀ, a Persian noble family prominent at Baghdad in the 5th/11th century, including: 1. Abū Saʿd (or Saʿīd) ʿAbd-al-Wāḥed b. Aḥmad b. Jaʿfar b. Mākūlā, vizier to the Buyid Jalāl-al-dawla, ruler of Baṣra, from whom Abū Saʿd received the name ʿAlam-al-dīn—the second man in Islam to have a laqab…

ĀL-E MAʾMŪN (or Maʾmunids), a short-lived dynasty of independent Iranian rulers in Ḵᵛārazm, 385-408/995-1017; they replaced the ancient line of Afrighid Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, but were in turn displaced by the expansionist policies of Maḥmūd of Ḡazna. The genealogical tree of the family (see Table 1) is as follows: 1. Abū ʿAlī Maʾmūn…

ĀL-E MĪKĀL, the leading aristocratic family of western Khorasan from the 3rd/9th to the 5th/11th century; descended from the pre-Islamic nobility of the Samarkand region, it played an important political role. Nothing is known about the life of Mīkāl b. Abd-al-Wāḥed, the early 3rd/9th century family member from whom the…

ĀL-E MOḤTĀJ, a local dynasty, most probably of Iranian origin but conceivably of Iranized Arab stock, who ruled in the principality of Čaḡānīān on the right bank of the upper Oxus in the basin of the Sorḵān river (Čaḡān-rūd in Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, p. 41), first as vassals of the Samanids…

ĀL-E ʿABĀ, “The Family of the Cloak,” i.e., the Prophet Moḥammad, his daughter Fāṭema, his cousin and son-in-law ʿAlī, and his grandsons Ḥasan and Ḥosayn. The designation is generally held to derive from an incident recorded in both Sunni and Shiʿite books of Tradition: Wearing a striped cloak of black…

ĀLĀ DĀḠ, name of a number of mountains in Iran; of Turkish origin, the words mean “colored mountain.” Many mountains or mountain ranges in Turkey or regions inhabited by Turkman peoples, including Soviet central Asia and Siberia, bear this name. In Iran there are several mountains or smaller massifs known…

ALA, HOSAYN (Ḥosayn ʿAlāʾ, Moʿin-al-Vezāreh; b. Tbilisi, 1882; d. Tehran, 1964; Figure 1), statesman, gifted diplomat, minister, and prime minister during the late Qajar and Pahlavi periods. He served as a high-ranking official from the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-07 (q.v.) to the time of the White Revolution of 1963-64. Ala was…