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AMĪR(-E) NEẒĀM, the holder of the military and administrative office of emārat-e neẓām in the Qajar period. In the absence of any reference to this post in Safavid, Afsharid, and Zand sources, there is little doubt as to its Qajar origin. It first appears as a top ranking military post—perhaps…

AMĪR(-E) NEẒĀM GARRŪSĪ, ḤASAN-ʿALĪ KHAN, known also as Sālār-e Laškar (1236-1317/1820-1900), officer, diplomat, statesman, and literary figure of the Qajar period. He was born in Bīǰār to a family of Kurdish Kabūdvand chiefs with a long history of official service (for the family lineage and service under previous dynasties see…

AMIR PĀZVĀRI, semi-legendary poet of Māzandarān, who is believed to have composed, among other dialect poems, the quatrains (do-baytis) known as amiri, a popular genre still sung widely in rural communities throughout the province. His epithet relates him to the plain of Pāzvār (near Bābolsar), the administrative center of which,…

AMĪR(-E) TŪMĀN, commander of 10,000 men, a military rank originally used by the Il-khanids in the 7th/13th century (see Jovaynī, I, p. 23; cf. the nōyān also a commander of 10,000 men; see G. Doerfer, Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen I, Wiesbaden, 1963, p. 528). The term tūmān (tümen,…

AMĪR-AL-OMARĀʾ, literally, “commander of commanders,” hence “supreme commander,” a military title found from the early 4th/10th century onwards, first in Iraq and then in the Iranian lands. i. The early period. ii. Safavid usage.   i. The Early Period The appearance of the term dates from the period when the…

AMIR-AʿLAM, AMIR (b. Trabzon, 1861; d. Tehran, 2 Ordibehešt 1340 Š./22 April 1961, FIGURE 1), university professor, representative and deputy speaker of the Majles, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, senator, minister, and founder of the Red Lion and Sun (Jamʿiyat-e šir o ḵoršid-e sorḵ-e Irān), an organization corresponding to…

AMIR-ṬAHMĀSEBI, ʿAbd-Allāh (b. Tehran 1260 Š./1881, d. Borujerd, 1307Š./1928), Major General, Army Commander and Governor of Azerbaijan, Minister of War, Minister of Public Utilities and Commerce (FIGURE 1). His father, an army officer with the Cossack Brigade, came from a Persian family who had migrated to Tehran after Azerbaijan north…

AMĪRAK BALʿAMĪ, name given to ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD (also called Baḷʿamī-e Kūček “the lesser, younger”), son of Abu’l-Fażl Moḥammad b. ʿObaydallāh Baḷʿamī (also called Baḷʿamī-e Bozorg “the greater, elder”); both served as viziers of the Samanids. Two possible explanations of the name Baḷʿamī are given in Samʿānī’s Ketāb al-ansāb: 1….