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ALĪ KĀY, a semi-nomadic Gīlakī-speaking tribe that winters in the foothills of the central Alborz; about three hundred families stay in the villages of the Garmsār plain, while another one hundred are dispersed among a dozen villages to the west of Karaǰ (Fašand, Valīān). This division is already mentioned by…

Alimardan Khān title Alimardan Khān genre/topic  Epic Song language Baktiāri performer Latif Najafi, voice Nowzar Mo’men Nejād, sornā Hušang Kalbi-pur, dohol instrument Sornā; Dohol; Voice composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by Paymān Bozorgniyā place of recording   date of recording   duration 1:58 source Regional…

ALIZADEH, Ghazaleh (Ḡazāla ʿAlizāda, registered as Fāṭema ʿAlizāda Harāti; b. Mashad, 17 February 1947; d. Javāherdeh, Rāmsar, 8 April 1996), noted novelist and short story writer (FIGURE 1). Alizadeh was the only child of a wealthy and cultured family. Her father was a merchant, and her mother, Monir Sayyedi, a…

ALLĀH-QOLĪ KHAN ĪLḴĀNĪ (sometimes Allāh-qolī Mīrzā), Qajar notable (ca. 1236-1309/1820-1892). Son of Mūsā Khan and grandson of Ḥosayn-qolī Khan, he was both Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah’s fraternal nephew and grandson by his daughter ʿEzzat Nesāʾ. He was brought up in the shah’s household (andarūn). Because of his grandmother’s influence, the shah looked…

ALLAHABAD, a major city and headquarters of a district of the same name in Uttar Pradesh, India at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. Of religious and strategic importance from ancient times, Allahabad probably emerged as a full-fledged town in the early Buddhist period; its history is obscure…

ALLĀHDĪĀ ČEŠTĪ, SHAIKH, Mughal author of Sīar al-aqṭāb, a biography of the masters of the Ṣāberī Češtī Sufi order. Born at Kayranah (near Panipat) in the early 11th/late 16th century, he died sometime after 1069/1659, probably in Ajmer; his paternal uncle and grandfather were physicians, the former in the service…

ALLĀHO AKBAR, KŪH-E, a mountain range that forms part of the northern rim of the Khorasan trench in northeastern Iran, to the north of the city of Qūčān. The massif is almost 100 km long and rises to a height of over 3,000 m. It links Kopet-Dag (Qobba Dāḡ) in…

ALLĀHVERDĪ KHAN (d.1022/1613), a Georgian ḡolām who rose to high office in the Safavid state. In order to counterbalance the power of the qizilbāš Turkman tribesmen, who constituted the Safavid military aristocracy, Shah ʿAbbās I created a standing army of Georgian, Armenian, and Circassian Christians taken prisoner in the course…

ALLĀHVERDĪ KHAN (d. 1072/1662), son of Ḵosrow Khan (d. 1063/1653), a Safavid ḡolām of Armenian origin. Under Shah Ṣafī I Allāhverdī attained the rank of yūzbāšī-e ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa. At the accession of ʿAbbās II (1052/1642) his father was promoted from amīršekār-bāšī to beglerbegī of Šīrvān, and he was appointed to…

ALLĀHYĀR KHAN ABDĀLĪ, a chieftain of the important Afghan tribe of the Abdālī (later known as the Dorrānī). Elected leader of the tribe in 1137/1725-26, he was governor of Herat when Nāder-qolī (the future Nāder Shah) advanced to reconquer the city in 1141/1729. Allāhyār Khan lost battles at Kāfer Qaḷʿa…

ALLĀHYĀR KHAN QELĪČĪ (b. ca. 1150/1735-36), khan of the Qelīča, a minor Turkish tribe in northern Khorasan, and ruler of Sabzevār at the turn of the 19th century. He rose to power in the late 12th/18th century when supremacy over Khorasan was disputed by the Zands, the Qajars, and the…