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MOSHFEQ-e KAZEMI, Sayyed Morteza (Sayyed Mortażā Mošfeq-e Kāẓemi, b. Tehran, 1904; d. Paris 1978), author of Iran’s first social novel.  i. Life  ii. Works i. Life Mortażā’s father, Mirza Reżā, was a religious man who worked at the Ministry of Finance (Moshfeq-e Kazemi, 1971, I, p. 10). His grandfather, Mirza…

MOSHIRI, FEREYDUN (Fereydun Moshiri, b. Tehran, 30 Šahrivar 1305 Š./10 October 1926; d. Tehran, 3 Ābān 1379 Š./ 23 November 2000), prominent 20th-century poet. (FIGURE 1) LIFE Fereydun Moshiri was born to Ebrāhim Moshiri and his wife, Ḵoršid. His lineage on the paternal side extends to Dāvud-Qoli, among the commanders…

MOSTA’AN, Hosayn-Qoli (Ḥosayn-Qoli Mostaʿān, b. Tehran, 1904; d. Tehran, March 5, 1983), noted serial writer, journalist, and translator. His father, Ḡolām-Ḥosayn, a religious man with poetic sensibilities, was an accountant at the Qajar court. He wanted his son to become a clergyman. At the age of four, Hosseinqoli was sent…

MOTʿA (lit. “pleasure”), in Islamic law the word used as a technical term in the sense of a marriage contracted for a definite period of time. It is a complex Shiʿite institution with which historically much cultural and moral ambivalence has been associated. Since the Revolution of 1979, it has…

MOVSĒS XORENAC‘I  (Moses of Khorene), from the later Middle Ages, and down to the present, honored as the “Father of Armenian History” (Patmahayr). According to his own words, he was a pupil of St. Maštoc‘, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, writing in the 5th century CE. He further claims…

Mowlūd Ḵvāni in Mināb title Mowlūd Ḵvāni in Mināb genre/topic Mawlūd language Arabic performer   instrument Voice composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 2:46 source Voices from the Land of Iran. An Anthology of Voice…

MOZAFFARIDS (Āl-e Moẓaffar), family of governors of Yazd under the Il-Khanids, who expanded their domain after the collapse of the Il-Khanid power and established the Mozaffarid dynasty in Yazd, Kerman, Fars, and ʿErāq-e ʿAjam (see ʿAJAM) (713-95/1314-93; Figure 1), which endured until its destruction by Timur (Tamerlane) in 795/1393.  Origins and…

MOʾAYYAD FI’L-DIN ŠIRĀZI (ca. 1000-87), outstanding and multitalented representative of the Fatimid religious and political mission (daʿwa) in the service of the Caliph/Imam Mostanṣer bi’llāh (r. 1036-94). Moʾayyad excelled as missionary-agent (dāʿi), statesman and scholar. In his theological and philosophical writings he brought the Ismaʿili spiritual heritage to its pinnacle….

MOʾAYYED AY-ABA, (مؤید آیبه) or Malek Ay-Aba (r. 1168-74), a slave (ḡolām) of the Saljuqid king, Sultan Sanjar (r. 1197-1218), who ruled in Nišāpur (r. 1168-74) in his name. The record about Moʾayyed’s career is mainly associated with the Ḡozz attack on Khorasan, which was a pivotal event in the history…

MOʾTAMEN  (Ar. Moʾtaman),  Zeyn-al-ʿĀbedin (b. Tehran, 13 Ḵordād 1293 Š./4 June 1914; d. Tehran, 2 Ābān 1384 Š./24 October 2005), teacher, writer, and scholar of Persian literature (FIGURE 1). Moʾtamen was born into a family with a long literary tradition, traceable to Fatḥ-ʿAli Ḵan Kāšāni, better known by his nom…

MOʿAYYERI, Mohammad Hasan, better known as Rahi (Moḥammad Ḥasan Moʿayyeri, b. Tehran, 1 April 1909; d. Tehran, 14 November 1968), prominent poet and lyricist. Born six months after his father’s untimely death, Moʿayyeri was named for the departed Moḥammad Ḥasan Moʾayyad Ḵalvat.  His family resolved, however, to call him Biyuk…

MOʿEZZ-AL-DAWLA, ABU’L-ḤOSAYN, Aḥmad ebn Abi Šojāʿ (d. 356/967), 4th/10th century Buyid prince, the youngest of the three brothers who conquered western, southern, and central Persia (see BUYIDS). Having already participated in the taking of Shiraz in 324/935-36 when he was only twenty-one years old, he was sent to conquer Kermān….

MOʿEZZI NIŠĀBURI, Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-al-Malek (b. Nišābur, ca. 1048-49; d. ca. 1125-27), a major poet at the court of the Saljuqs (Seljuks) in Khorasan in the 12th century, noted for the eloquence of his panegyric odes (qaṣidas) and his ghazals. His royal patrons included Malekšāh (1072-92), Barkiāroq (1094-1105),…

MOʿIN-AL-DIN NAṬANZI, early 15th-century historian, author of the Montaḵab al-tavāriḵ, a general chronicle on dynastic history of Iran in the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, dedicated to the Timurid ruler Šāhroḵ (1405-47). Little is known of Naṭanzi’s life. According to Dawlatšāh Samarqandi (p. 371), he was a man of letters at…