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MOḤTAŠAM KĀŠĀNI, Šams-al-Šoʿarā Kamāl-al-Din, Persian poet of the Safavid period (b. Kashan, between 1528 and 1529; d. Kashan, February 1588). Like many poets of the time, Moḥtašam had mercantile origins. His father, Ḵᵛāja Mir Aḥmad (d. 1554), was active in Kashan’s prosperous cloth industry, and the poet seems to have…

MOJIR-AL-DIN BAYLAQĀNI, Persian poet of the 12th century, born in Baylaqān in Arrān (now part of the Republic of Azerbaijan). He was a contemporary of Khāqāni (Ḵāqāni Šervāni), Aṯir-al-Din Aḵsikati, and Jamāl-al-Din Eṣfahāni; and, as a number of poems indicate, their relationship was at times marked by verbal sparring. Mojir was also…

MOJMAL AL-TAWĀRIḴ WA’L-QEṢAṢ, an anonymous chronicle from the 12th century in the Persian tradition of literary historiography. The work concentrates on the Persian rulers before the advent of Islam, the Muslim conquests, and events related to Hamadān, indicating that the work probably originated there. The text includes elaborate lists of…

MOḴAMMESA, an early extremist Shiʿite (ḡolāt) sect who divinized five members (ahl al-kesāʾ/Āl-e ʿabā “the family of the cloak”) of the Prophet Moḥammad’s family, including Moḥammad himself, his cousin ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb, his daughter Fāṭema, and his grandsons Imam Ḥasan and Imam Ḥosayn. It is not clear whether the…

MOKRI, a Kurdish tribe of western Iranian Azerbaijan. According to Šaraf-al-Din Bedlisi (1543-1603/4), it descended “from the princes of Baban” and its name was derived from that of one of its leaders, a certain Mekkār (Bedlisi, tr. Charmoy, I, p. 347, n. 11). Henry C. Rawlinson, who visited the Mokri…

MOḴTĀR-NĀMA, a wide-ranging collection of quatrains (2088 in number) attributed to the mystic poet Farid-al-Din ʿAṭṭār (q.v.; ca. 1145-46/1221). It is divided into fifty thematic chapters of differing length, preceded by an introduction in prose which sets out the motives and the method underlying the composition of the work (Moḵtār-nāma,…

MOLÉ, MARIJAN (b. Ljubljana, 28 July 1924; d. Paris, 6 May 1963; Plate I), distinguished scholar of Middle and Modern Iranian studies. Molé, who died rather prematurely at the age of 39, was one of the most gifted Iranists of his generation. His father, Vojeslav Molé (1886-1973), was a Slovenian…

MOLLA NASREDDIN (Mollā Naṣr-al-Din), one of the most celebrated personalities in Persian and Middle Eastern folklore. i. THE PERSON Molla Nasreddin is a character who appears in thousands of stories, always witty, sometimes wise, even philosophic, sometimes the instigator of practical jokes on others and often a fool or the…

MOLLA NASREDDIN ii. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL WEEKLY Molla Nasreddin (Mollā Naṣr-al-Din) was a political and social weekly in Azeri Turkish, which was published from 7 April 1906 until 1917 in Tiblisi (340 issues), in 1921 in Tabriz (8 issues), and from 1922 to 1931 in Baku (400 issues). This eight-page…

MOLLĀ ṢADRĀ ŠIRĀZI, Ṣadr-al-Din Moḥammad b. Ebrāhim b. Yaḥyā Qawāmi Širāzi, arguably the most significant Islamic philosopher after Avicenna (b. Shiraz, 979 /1571-72; d. Basra or Najaf, 1045/1635-36?). Best known as Mollā Ṣadrā, he was later given the title of Ṣadr-al-Motaʾallehin (Master of those who would be divine). He became famous…

MOMAYYEZ, Morteżā (b. Tehran, August 1936; d. Tehran, November 2005), illustrator, painter, teacher and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of graphic design in contemporary Iran (FIGURE 1; see GRAPHIC ARTS). Mommayez was the eldest son of Moḥammad-ʿAli and Ḵānom Kučak. His paternal grand uncle, Musā, was…

MONĀJĀT, a prayer genre which is often associated with the mystical verses of the Persian poet ʿAbdallāh Anṣāri (d. 1089) compiled in his famous Monājāt-nāma. It also found expression in the religious literature and rituals of the Zoroastrians. Despite their Islamic origin, these Zoroastrian monājāt established themselves as an independent…

MONĀJĀT i. In Zoroastrianism DEFINITION The Arabic word monājāt is often translated as “intimate conversation” (Danner and Thackston, p. 181; Wehr, p. 1251: “vertrauliche Unterhaltung”) referring to a Qurʾanic verse (19:52) in which the verb nājā describes Moses talking confidentially with God at the Sinai. The Parsi scholar Jivanji J….