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NABIL-E AKBAR, title of Āqā Moḥammad Qāʾeni, a prominent Bahai author and apologist (b. Now Ferest [Razmara,Farhang IX, p. 428], a village near Qāʾen, 23 Ramaḍān 1244/29 March 1829; d. Bukhara, 13 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1309/6 July 1892). Mohammad Qāʾeni, also known as Fāżel-e Qāʾeni, received the title Nabil-e Akbar from Bahāʾ-Allāh….

NABIL-E AʿẒAM ZARANDI, MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD (ملّا محمد نبیل اعظم زرندی), Persian Bahai poet, teacher, and chronicler of Babi history (b. Zarand, 18 Ṣafar 1247/29 July 1831; d. ʿAkkā, Palestine, 10 Ṣafar 1310/3 September 1892). Nabil converted to Babism around 1847 and in 1858 accepted the faith of Bahāʾ-Allāh. Born into a…

NĀDER SHAH, ruler of Iran, 1736-47 (Figure 1). He rose from obscurity to control an empire that briefly stretched across Iran, northern India, and parts of Central Asia. He developed a reputation as a skilled military commander and succeeded in battle against numerous opponents, including the Ottomans and the Mughals….

NĀDERA (b. Andejān 1792; d. Ḵᵛoqand 1842) Transoxianan poetess of Ḵᵛoqand, who wrote in both Persian–with the pen name Maknuna–and Čaḡatāy (see CHAGHATAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) under the pseudonyms of Nādera and Kāmela. Nādera’s real name was Māhlar-āyim, but she is better known as Nādera. She was born into the…

NADERPOUR, NADER (Nāder Nāderpur, b. Tehran, 16 Ḵordād 1308 Š./6 June 1929; d. Los Angeles, 29 Bahman 1378 Š./18 February 2000; Figure 1), noted poet and literary critic. LIFE The eldest of six children, Nader Naderpour was born into a well-educated and cultured family. His father, Taqi Mirza, was a…

NAFAR, a tribe of Fārs and the Tehran region. Although of Turkic origin, the Nafar of Fārs have become a mixture of Turkic, Arab, and Lor elements. In 1861-62, the Nafar of Fārs became one of the five tribes of the Ḵamsa tribal confederacy (Ilāt-e Ḵamsa). The Nafar were so closely…

NAJAF, known in Arabic as al-Najaf al-Ašraf (the most noble Najaf), a town in southern Iraq and one of the most important pilgrimage destinations for the Shiʿites.   ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb, the first Shiʿite Imam (and fourth Sunni caliph) is buried in the city along with graves attributed to…

NAJM-AL-SALṬANA, Malek Tāj Ḵānom, a Qajar princess whose life spanned the late Qajar and early Pahlavi eras (b. 1231-32 Š./1853; d. 1311 Š./1932, FIGURE 1). Najm-al-Salṭana was the eldest daughter of Firuz Mirzā, son of ʿAbbās Mirzā Qajar. Her mother was Ḥājia Homā Ḵānom, daughter of Bahman Mirzā Bahāʾ-al-Dawla, who was…

NAJM-E ṮĀNI, Amir Yār-Aḥmad Eṣfahāni (d. 918/1512), the third holder of the office of wakil-e nafs-e nafis-e Homāyun under Shah Esmāʿil Ṣafawi, the representative of the Shah both in his religious and in his political capacity; as Roger Savory has put it, the holder of this office “was, in fact,…

Nakisā va Bārbad title Nakisā va Bārbad genre/topic Ahle Ḥaqq dastgāh language   performer Nur ʿAli Elāhi instrument Tanbur composer   author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording Beginning of the 1970s duration 4:29 source Ostād Nur ʿAli Elāhi, Tanbur,…

NAḴJAVĀN, present-day Nakhchivan (lat 39°12′ N, long 45°24′ E), the administrative center of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) with its own elected representative assembly, within the Republic of Azerbaijan but separated from it by Armenia. The region covers 5,363 square miles and has a total population of 398,000, in which…

NAḴJAVĀNI, Ḥājj Moḥammad (حاج محمد نخجوانی)(b. Tabriz, 1880; d. Tabriz, 15 Mordād 1341 Š./6 August 1962), businessman, scholar, and collector of manuscripts. His father, Ḥājj ʿAli ʿAbbās was a leading merchant in Tabriz and attended to his son’s education from early years. The young Moḥammad began his elementary education under Āqā…

NAḴL, one of the principal objects related to the mourning rituals commemorating the suffering and martyrdom of Imam Ḥosayn b. ʿAli, the grandson of the Prophet Moḥammad. It is described as a wooden structure resembling a bridal pavilion and decorated with colorful silk shawls, precious fabric, mirrors, lanterns, etc.; flowers…

NAḴŠABI, ŻIĀʾ-AL-DIN (d. 751/1350), 14th-century Češti mystic and author. Though originally from Naḵšab (or Nasaf, in Transoxiana), his family emigrated to India at the time of Mongol incursions (Rizvi, I, p. 132). A follower of the Češti Skaikh Farid-al-Din Nāguri (d. 752/1351), Żiāʾ-al-Din Naḵšabi lived a reclusive life in Badāʾun,…

NALÎ (Pers. Nāli), the pen-name of Mela Khidrî Ehmedî Šaweysî Mikâʾîlî (b. Ḵāk o ḵol, 1797 or 1800; d. Istanbul, 1855 or 1856), Kurdish poet who contributed immensely to making Sorani the literary language of southern Kurdistan, that is, most of present-day Iraq and the neighboring districts in Iran (FIGURE…