Explore Iranica

JADE i. INTRODUCTION Regional overview. Jade carving in pre-Islamic Central and Western Asia was largely an east Iranian and Turkic phenomenon, and the same holds true for the Islamic tradition. Under Muslim rule jade carving was probably widespread in the eastern parts of Persia, and it is likely that Samarqand,…

JADE ii. PRE-ISLAMIC IRANIAN JADES An extremely small range of pre-Islamic Iranian jades have thus far been published, despite the very ancient employment of jade in eastern Iran. The overwhelming majority consists of a conjugation of sword pommel, quillon, and scabbard slide types. They are associated with the development of…

JADE iii. JADE CARVING, 4TH CENTURY B.C.E. TO 15TH CENTURY C.E. The eleven ancient and medieval jades illustrated in the plates are representatives of a very large and expanding corpus of ancient and medieval Iranian jades. They are primarily discussed as works of art, but the ways in which they…

JADIDISM, a movement of reform among Muslim intellectuals in Central Asia, mainly among the Uzbeks and the Tajiks, from the first years of the 20th century to the 1920s. It took its name from oṣul-e jadid (new method), which was applied to the modern schools that the reformers advocated in…

JĀF, designation of a once large Kurdish nomadic confederation living in south Iraqi Kurdistan and in the Sanandaj area of Iranian Kurdistan. The former used to be called Morādi, because they had helped the Ottoman Sultan Morād IV to capture Baghdad in about 1638 (Nikitine, p. 171, tr. p. 369)….

JAFR, a term of uncertain etymology (for which, see below) used to designate the major divinatory art in Islamic mysticism and gnosis, the ʿelm al-jafr (the science of jafr) also simply al-ʿelm. It is of discovering the predestined fate of nations, dynasties, religions, and individuals by a variety of methods…

JAGARḴWIN (or Cegerxwin), pseudonym of Şêxmûs Hesen (b. 1903, d. Stockholm, 22 October 1984), considered by many the leading Kurdish poet of the 20th century writing in Kurmanji. He was born into a poor family in the village of Hesar in present-day Turkey, and was orphaned at an early age….

JAḠATU, an archaeological site in Ḡazni province, Afghanistan, situated about 20 km north of Ḡazni (lat 33°47′N, long 68°22′E) on the route between Ḡazni and Wardak. The site includes a group of small mounds situated on either side of the caravan road that skirts the Bād-e Āsiā mountain, remains of fortifications…

JAḠMINI (or Čaḡmini), MAḤMUD b. Moḥammad b. ʿOmar, an astronomer from Jaḡmin, a village in Ḵᵛārazm (d. 745/1344). He is mentioned as the author of a brief Arabic survey of mathematical astronomy under the title al-Molaḵḵaṣ fi’l-hayʾa (purportedly written in Ḵᵛārazm in 618/1220) and of an Arabic extract of Avicenna’s…

JĀḠORI, a term of uncertain etymological origin, is both a tribal section of the Hazāras and a district (wolu-swāli) of Ḡazni province in Afghanistan. In Hazārajāt (q.v.), former tribal names tend nowadays to refer to territories. This evolution mirrors the general breakdown of social organization based on descent groups after…

JAHĀN TIMÜR (TEMÜR), son of Alafrank (q.v.) son of Gaikhatu Khan (q.v.). A phantom Il-khan, previously known as ʿEzz-al-Din, Jahān Timür was recognized briefly in Iraq and Mesopotamia in 1339-40 during the period of the collapse of the Il-khanate following the death of Abu Saʿid (q.v.) in 736/1335. The evidence…

JAHĀN-E ZANĀN (Women’s World), a magazine published first in Mašhad (four issues, 25 Jomādā I-17 Šaʿbān 1339/15 Dalw 1299-6 Ordibehešt 1300 Š./4 Feb.-26 April 1921) and, after a lapse of about five months, in Tehran (one issue only, Moḥarram 1340/Sept. 1921). It started as a biweekly journal but became monthly…

JAHĀN-MALEK ḴĀTUN (b. after 724/1324, d. after 784/1382), Injuid (see INJU DYNASTY) princess, poet, and contemporary of Ḥāfeẓ (715-92/1315-90) á. Jahān-Malek Ḵātun was the only child of the Injuid ruler Jalāl-al-Din Masʿudšāh (k. 1342) to survive to adulthood. On her mother’s side, Jahān-Malek was descended from the Chobanids of Azerbaijan and…

JAHĀNĀRĀ BEGUM, (1614-81) the eldest surviving daughter of the Mughal Emperor Šāh Jahān and his favorite wife, Momtāz Mahal, for whom Šāh Jahān commissioned the Tāj Mahal. Born in 1614, Jahānārā became the head of the imperial harem when her mother died in 1631, and she played a pivotal role…