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ALLIANCE ISRAÉLITE UNIVERSELLE, the first worldwide Jewish organization, through which a number of Jewish schools were founded in Iran. Established in Paris in 1860, the Alliance aimed at the unification of Jews, the defense of their political and social rights, and the combating of anti-Semitism. Within a short time, it…

ALP ARSLĀN (b. Moḥarram, 420/January-February, 1029 according to Ebn al-Aṯīr, IX, p. 476; in 424/1032-33 according to Bondārī, Histoire, p. 47), Saljuq sultan from 455/1063 until his death in Rabīʿ I, 465/November-December, 1072. His Muslim name was Moḥammad (the Arab chroniclers regard “Alp Arslān” as a Turkish laqab). He was…

ALPTIGIN (Tk., “hero prince”), Turkish military slave commander of the Samanids and founder of Turkish power in eastern Afghanistan (d. 352/963). Apparently brought as a slave from the Central Asian steppes, Alptigin rose in the hierarchy of the Samanid army until he became head of the royal guard (ḥāǰeb al-ḥoǰǰāb)…

ALQĀB VA ʿANĀWĪN, titles and forms of address, employed in Iran from pre-Islamic times. i. Alqab. ii. ʿAnāwīn. iii.Titles of Cities, Institutions, etc.   i. Alqāb Meaning and origin. The Arabic noun laqab (pl. alqāb)originally meant an approbatory or disapprobatory nickname. The use of alqāb has a long history in…

ALQĀS (ALQĀSB, ALQĀṢ) MĪRZĀ ṢAFAWĪ, second of Shah Esmāʿīl’s four surviving sons (b. 10 Ṣafar 922/15 March 1516, d. 21 Rabīʿ I 957/9 April 1550) and leader of a revolt. Sām Mīrzā was probably his uterine brother, while Shah Ṭahmās b and Bahrām Mīrzā were brothers by another mother (Navīdī,…

ALTAIC, The Altaic peoples and languages are distributed around 45° north latitude, from eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean. Until recently, the Altaic language family was considered to consist of three groups: Turkic (to which belong several languages locally spoken in parts of Iran and Afghanistan such as Azeri Turkish,…

ALTHEN, JEAN-BAPTISTE JOANNIS (1121-88/1709-74), who introduced the cultivation of madder (Rubia peregrina L., rūnās) into southern France. The son of “Althen and Catherine Madrecha,” he was born in a village he spells “Chaouch.” He lost his parents during the Afghan invasion and was taken as a slave to Kayseri in…

ALTIN (ALTYN) TEPE, a settlement of the Neolithic period and Bronze Age in the south of Turkmenistan near the village of Miana. Extensive excavations have been carried out there since 1965 by the South Turkmenistan Archeological Complex Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen SSR and of the…

ALTŪN TAMḠĀ “gold mark of ownership” (Tk.), a seal that was used throughout their empire by the Mongol rulers of Iran (including the Chupanids and Jalayerids), especially for financial or property decisions and in documents relating to financial transactions by the state. The term itself does not occur universally (see…

ALTUNTAŠ (ĀLTŪNTAŠ) ḤĀJEB, ABŪ SAʿĪD, Turkish slave commander of the Ghaznavid sultans and governor in Ḵᵛārazm (408-23/1017-32). He began his career under Sebüktigin, founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, and under his son Maḥmūd was a leading general. He commanded the right wing of the forces in the battle near Balk…

ĀLŪČA, garden plum (Prunus domestica), a fruit with a wide range in size, flavor, color, and texture. Both ālūča and a variety called gowǰa baraḡānī (hālū zīgarh in Kurdistan) appear to have originated somewhere in northern Iran or around the Caucasus, at least 2,000 years ago. Dried gowǰa baraḡānī are…

ALVAND KŪH, mountain range near Hamadān, an isolated massif at a point of junction between the Zagros folds and the central Iranian plateau. It consists mainly of intrusive granites and diorites, which were thrust through geosynclinal sediments in tectonic processes connected with the orogenesis of the Zagros in late Jurassic…

ALVĪRĪ, a dialect spoken in the village of Alvīr and belonging to the Central group of Iranian dialects. Alvīr is a declining village of some 250 families (1960; local estimate) in Turkish-speaking Ḵaragān district of Sāva, about 60 km northwest of Sāva and 50 km southwest of Eštehārd. The ruins…