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ḴALIFA SOLṬĀN (Solṭān-al-ʿOlamāʾ, b. Isfahan, 1001/1592-93, d. Māzandarān, March 1654), grand vizier under Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1588-1629) and then again under Shah ʿAbbās II (r. 1642-66). Ḵalifa Solṭān, whose original name was Sayyed ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Ḥosayn, was the son of Mirzā Rafiʿ-al-Din Moḥammad and a scion of a well-know family…

ḴALIL SOLṬĀN b. MIRĀNŠĀH b. TIMUR (b. Herat, 14 July 1384; d. Ray, 2-3 November 1411), Timurid ruler (1405-09). His mother, Sevin Beg, known as Ḵānzāda, was descended from Čengiz Khan on her mother’s side (Moʿezz, fol. 126b). She had earlier been married to Timur’s son, Jahāngir, and was also the…

ḴALIL, MOḤAMMAD EBRĀHIM (b. Kabul, 1896; d. Kabul, 1984), Afghan scribe, calligrapher, poet and historian. Son of Mirzā Fażl-Aḥmad, he traced his genealogy to Shaikh Aḥmad b. Abu’l-Ḥasan Jāmi (better known as Aḥmad Žandapil). Ḵalil studied privately with his parents and excelled in the art of calligraphy, especially the nastaʿliq…

ḴALIL-ALLĀH ŠAH (or Sayyed) BORHĀN-AL-DIN (b. Kuhbanān, Kermān, 1373-74; d. Deccan, India, 1455-56), the only son of the Sufi master, Šāh Neʿmat-Allāh Wali of Kermān. Ḵalil-Allāh, who had been trained by his father to become a Sufi master, succeeded the latter as head of the Neʿmat-Allāhi Sufi order after his…

KALILA WA DEMNA (کلیله و دمنه), a collection of didactic animal fables, with the jackals Kalila and Demna as two of the principal characters.  The story cycle originated in India between 500 BCE and 100 BC, and circulated widely in the Near East.  The fables were translated into many languages,…

KALILA WA DEMNA ii. The translation by Abu’l-Maʿāli Naṣr-Allāh Monši The 6th century hejri marks the appearance of a style in Persian prose composition that is called the artistic or ornate prose (naṯr-e fanni or naṯr-e maṣnuʿ).  Prior to the development of this style, that is, from the beginning of…

KALILA WA DEMNA i. Redactions and circulation In Persian literature Kalila wa Demna has been known in different versions since the 6th century CE. The complex relations between the extant New Persian versions, a lost Sanskrit original, and a lost Middle Persian translation have been studied since 1859 when the…

KALILA WA DEMNA iii. Illustrations Kalila wa Demna is a collection of didactic animal fables, with the jackals Kalila and Demna as two of the principal characters. The story cycle originated in India between 500 and 100 BCE, and circulated widely in the Near East. The fables were translated into many…

ḴALILI, ḴALIL-ALLĀH, (b. Kabul, 1907; d. Islamabad, 4 March 1987), renowned 20th-century Afghan poet in Dari (Persian), literary historian, scholar, and high-ranking official. Ḵalili is regarded as one of the last great vestiges of the traditional Persianate culture in Afghanistan, where erudition and classical training were particularly valued (Figure 1)….

ḴALILI, ʿABBĀS, political activist, journalist, translator, poet, and novelist (b. Najaf, 1895; d. Tehran, 1971; Figure 1). LIFE  Ḵalili was born to a cleric, Sheikh Asad-Allāh, who educated him in Persian and Arabic language and literature. Later, Ḵalili studied Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic philosophy at the seminaries of Najaf in…

KALIM KĀŠĀNI, Abu Ṭāleb (b. Hamadān, ca. 990-94/1581-85; d. Kashmir, 15 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1061/28 November 1651), Persian poet and one of the leading exponents of the so-called Indian style (sabk-e hendi). Life. All major taḏkeras agree on a number of essential facts about Kalim’s life. He was born in Hamadān but…

KALIMI, the word used to refer to the Jews of Iran in modern Persian usage. The word “kalimi” derives from the Arabic root KLM meaning to address, to speak, but the appellation in this context is derived directly from the specific epithet given to the prophet Moses as Kalim-Allāh, as…

ḴALIQ LĀHURI, a little-known Indo-Persian poet of the 18th century. He is not mentioned in any known biographical dictionaries (taḏkera) of Persian poets, nor in any historiographical writing, and all that is known about him is the information found in his works, particularly in his divān (Aḥmad, p. 236; Pellò,…

ḴALḴĀLI, SAYYED ʿABD-al-RAḤIM (b. Ḵalḵāl, ca. 1872; d. Tehran, 20 June 1942), well-known constitutionalist, journalist, government official, bookseller, and publisher, and the editor of one of the oldest available manuscripts of the Divān of Hafez (Figure 1). Early life and education. Ḵalḵāli was born ca. 1872 in the town of…