Explore Iranica

MODARRESI, Taqi (b. Tehran 1931, d. Baltimore 1997), Persian novelist and psychiatrist who made his literary debut with the publication of his first novel, Yakolyā wa tanhāʾi-e u (Yakolya and Her Loneliness, 1955). He was born to Esmāʿil Modarresi, a lawyer, and Rāżia Ṭabāṭabāʾi, a great grand daughter of Sayyed…

MODI, JIVANJI JAMSHEDJI (1854-1933), Parsi priest, scholar, public servant, and community activist (Figure 1). Modi was the only son of a priest who served as the first head priest (Panthaki) of a fire-temple in South Bombay (Seth Jejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary, Colaba, consecrated in 1836). At the age of 11, Modi…

MOFAŻŻAL al-JOʿFI, Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Abu Moḥammad b. ʿOmar (d. before 799), a prominent member of the Kufan ḡolāt and companion of the sixth and seventh Shiʿite imams Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq and Musa al-Kāẓem. In the Imami and Noṣayri traditions he is known as the author of a number of apocryphal texts…

MOḠĀN (or Dašt-e Moḡān, also Muqān), a lowland steppe in Azerbaijan. i. Physical geography. ii. History, population, economy. iii. Archeology (pending).   i. Physical Geography The name “Moḡān” designates an extensive plain west of the Caspian sea, in the historical region of Azerbaijan, divided since the Treaty of Torkmānčāy between…

MOHALLABI, Abu Moḥammad al-Ḥasan b. Moḥmmad b. Hārun (903-63), vizier and literary patron. Abu Moḥammad Mohallabi was born in 903. He was one of last members to achieve renown from the illustrious clan of the Mohallabids that traced its lineage back nine generations to the army commander al-Mohallab b. Abi…

MOḤAMMAD AL-JAWĀD b. ʿAli b. Musā, ABU JAʿFAR, ninth imam of the Twelver Shiʿites (b. Medina, Ramażān 195/June 811; d. Baghdad, Ḏu’l-qaʿda 220/November 835).  In common usage he is called by the epithet al-Jawād (occasionally al-Taqi), while in the Shiʿite Hadith he is referred to as Abu Jaʿfar al-Ṯāni.  It…

MOḤAMMAD B. BOZORG-OMID, the third lord of Alamut (r. 532-57/1138-62).  He succeeded to the leadership of the Nezāri Ismaʿili state (see ISMAʿILISM iii. ISMAʿILI HISTORY), daʿwa (see DAʿI), and community on the death of his father, Kiā Bozorg-Omid (r. 518-32/1124-38), on 26 Jomādā I 532/9 February 1138.  He had been…

MOḤAMMAD B. NOṢAYR, Abu Šoʿayb al-Nomayri/al-Namiri (d. after 868), the founder and eponym of the Nomayriya/Namiriya sect (the nucleus of the later Noṣayriya; see also Noṣayris and ʿAlawi)—a circle (majles) of Shiʿite mystics whose activities took place in the 9th century between the house of its leader in Baṣra and…

MOḤAMMAD b. ʿABD-ALLAH b. ṬĀHER, Abu’l -ʿAbbās (b. 209/824-25, d. 253/ 867), high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate. He was one of several sons of ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ṭāher Ḏu’l-Yaminayn, governor of Khorasan for the ʿAbbasids 213-30/828-45 (see ʿABD-ALLĀH B. ṬĀHER ḎU’L-YAMINAYN), and spent his early…

MOḤAMMAD NĀDER SHAH (b. Dehra Dun, 21 Ḥamal 1262 Š./9 April 1883; d. Kabul, 17 ʿAqrab 1312 Š./8 November 1933), King of Afghanistan, first representative of the new Dorrāni dynasty (see AFGHANISTAN x. POLITICAL HISTORY) known as the Yaḥyā-ḵēl or Moṣāḥebān. Through his father, Sardār Moḥammad Yusof, Moṣāḥeb, Moḥammad Nāder…

MOḤAMMAD SHAH QĀJĀR, (b. Tabriz, 6 Ḏu’l-qaʿda 1222/5 January 1808; d. Tehran, 6 Šawwāl 1264/5 September 1848), the third ruler of the Qajar dynasty after his grandfather Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah. Early life. Moḥammad Mirzā (till his accession in 1834) was the eldest of ʿAbbās Mirzā’s twenty five sons. His mother was…

MOḤAMMAD-AYYUB KHAN, born Amir Šēr-ʿAli Khan, a prominent Afghan political figure of the Moḥammadzi clan (1857-1914). He was the third son of the Afghan amir, Šēr-ʿAli Khan (r. 1279-83 /1863-66, 1285-96/1867-79) by a Mohmand wife, Maryam, daughter of Saʿādat Khan. Moḥammad-Ayyub had a checkered political career in Afghanistan, most of…

MOḤAMMAD-TAQI WAKIL-AL-DAWLA ŠIRĀZI, Ḥāji Mirzā Sayyed (1830- 30 August 1911), prominent Iranian Bahai merchant from Shiraz.  He was the son of Ḥājia Bibi Fāṭema-Sāḥeb and Ḥāji Mirzā Sayyed Moḥammad (1798-1876), the great maternal uncle (ḵāl-e akbar) of Sayyed ʿAli-Moḥammad Širāzi, the Bāb (1819-50). Ḥāji Mirzā Sayyed Moḥammad and his two…

MOHASSESS, ARDESHIR (Ardešir Moḥaṣṣeṣṣ, b. Rasht, 18 Šahrivar 1317Š./9 September 1938; d. New York, 18 Mehr 1387 Š./9 October 2008) eminent cartoonist, illustrator, graphic satirist, and painter, who played a major role in the development of satirical cartoon in Iran (Figure 1, Figure 2). The youngest of four children, Ardeshir…

MOḤSENI, Akbar, (b. Tehran, 1291 Š./1912; d. Tehran, 1374 Š./ 1995) composer and prominent performer of the Ud (lute). Moḥseni’s father was an artillery officer who did not care much for music. Akbar, however, was a music enthusiast from childhood, and after the death of his father joined the military…