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KARUN RIVER iii. The Opening of the Karun With the intensification of the Anglo-Russian rivalry in the late 1800s over Iran’s geopolitical position and commercial resources, Great Britain began to exert immense pressure on the shah’s government to provide it with access to the Karun trade route. This meant the…

KĀŠĀNI, SAYYED ABU’L-QĀSEM (b. Tehran, 1877; d. Tehran, 12 March 1962; Figure 1), the leading political cleric during the critical period of 1941-53. Sayyed Abu’l-Qāsem was born to Sayyed Moṣṭafā b. Sayyed Ḥosayn Kāšāni, who was a source of emulation (marjaʿ-e taqlid) (Kāšāni, interviewed by Ḵosrowšāhi, I, p. 268; Āḡā Bozorg…

KĀŠĀNI, ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ KHAN, the fourth governor of Kashan for nearly a quarter of a century in the Zand period (1164-1209/1751-94).  He was the son-in-law of Mirzā Moʿezz-al-Din Ḡaffārri, whom he succeeded (he was the third governor of Kashan After Nāder Shah founded the office of governor.  One of his sisters was…

KĀŠEF ŠIRĀZI, MIR MOḤAMMAD-ŠARIF B. ŠAMS-AL-DIN MOḤAMMAD, Persian writer on ethics and poet of the Safavid period (b. Karbalā, ca. 1001/1592; d. Ray, ca. 1063/1653). Variants of his pen name are Kāšef, Kāšef-e Komeyt and Šarifā Kāšef. His father, Šamsā of Shiraz, was an expert in account keeping.  While he…

KĀŠEF-AL-ḠEṬĀʾ, JAʿFAR B. ḴEŻR NAJAFI (b. Najaf, 1156/1743; d. Najaf, 1227/1812), Shiʿi scholar and jurist, broadly influential in both Iraq and Persia. His cognomen, meaning “remover of the veil,” alludes to one of his best known works, Kašf al-ḡeṭāʾ ʿan mobhamāt al-šariʿat al-ḡorrāʾ (“Removing the veil from the obscurities of…

KĀŠEF-AL-ḠEṬĀʾ, MOḤAMMAD ḤOSAYN B. ʿALI B. REŻĀ B. MUSĀ (b. Najaf, 1877; d. Karand, 1954), one of the most illustrious descendants of the great Shiʿite jurist of the early Qajar period, Sheikh Jaʿfar Kāšef-al-Ḡeṭāʾ (d. 1227/1812). A prodigious and versatile author, teacher, and lecturer, Moḥammad Ḥosayn Kāšef-al-Ḡeṭāʾ exerted himself steadfastly…

KĀŠEF-AL-SALṬANA, ḤĀJJ MOḤAMMAD MIRZĀ QĀJĀR QOVĀNLU, also known as Čāykār (tea planter), Qajar diplomat, reformer, author, constitutionalist, and promoter of tea cultivation (b. Torbat-e Ḥaydariya, 1865; d. Kotal-e Malu in Fars, 1929). Early Life. The eldest son of Asad-Allāh Mirzā Nāʾeb-al-Eyāla and Jahānārā Ḵānom ʿAziz-al-Salṭana, Moḥammad Mirzā was descended through…

KĀŠEF-AL-SALṬANA, ḤĀJJ MOḤAMMAD MIRZĀ QĀJĀR QOVĀNLU, also known as Čāykār (tea planter), Qajar diplomat, reformer, author, constitutionalist, and promoter of tea cultivation (b. Torbat-e Ḥaydariya, 1865; d. Kotal-e Malu in Fars, 1929). Early Life. The eldest son of Asad-Allāh Mirzā Nāʾeb-al- Eyāla and Jahānārā Ḵānom ʿAziz-al-Salṭana, Moḥammad Mirzā was descended…

KĀŠEFI (d. 9th/15th century), an Ottoman poet of Iranian origin who composed the epic poem Ḡazā-nāma-ye Rum on the lives of the Ottoman sultans Morād II (r. 1421-44 and 1446-51) and Moḥammad II (r. 1444-46 and 1451-81).  The date and place of his birth and his real name are unknown. …

KĀŠEFI, KAMĀL-AL-DIN ḤOSAYN WĀʿEẒ, prolific prose-stylist of the Timurid era, religious scholar, Sufi figure, and influential preacher, known as Mawlānā Wāʿeẓ Kāšefi or simply Mollā Ḥosayn (b. Sabzavār, ca. 840/1436-37; d. Herat, 910/1504-5; Jaʿfariān, p. 168). Kāšefi was his pen name (taḵalloṣ), and Wāʿeẓ denoted his professional occupation as a…

KĀSEMI, NOṢRAT-ALLĀH (b. Tehran, 1908; d. Tehran 1996; Figure 1), physician, poet, writer, orator, and politician. The first of three children born to Mirzā Asad-Allāh Khan Kāsemi, a court official and head of a landowning family in Mazandaran, he earned a diploma from Dār al-Fonun (q.v.) in 1929, and graduated…

KAŠF AL-LOḠĀT WA’L-EṢṬELĀḤĀT (Revealing [of the meaning] of words and terminology), title of a Persian dictionary compiled in India by ʿAbd-al-Raḥim b. Aḥmad Suri, born in the province of Bihar, India, in the first half of the 16th century. Kašf al-loḡāt was compiled before 1017/1608 (most probably around the middle…

KAŠF AL-MAḤJUB (“Unveiling the hidden”), the only surviving work of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli b. ʿOṯmān Hojviri (d. between 465/1073 and 469/1077) and the oldest surviving independent manual of Sufism written in Persian, following within a couple of decades of Abu Ebrāhim Esmāʿil b. Moḥammad Mostamali’s (d. 1042) Šarḥ al-taʿarrof le-maḏhab al-taṣawwof,…

KAŠF AL-MAḤJUB OF SEJZI (“Unveiling the hidden”), the Persian version of an Ismaʿili treatise originally written in Arabic by the 10th century dāʾi (q.v.) Abu Yaʿqub al-Sejestāni (or Sejzi).  The fact that Sejestāni wrote an important work titled which was from the start subject to considerable doctrinal controversy both inside…