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QOM i. HISTORY TO THE SAFAVID PERIOD Pre-Islamic period. The present town of Qom in Central Iran dates back to ancient times. Its pre-Islamic history can be partially documented, although the earlier epochs remain unclear. Excavations at Tepe Sialk indicate that the region had been settled since ancient times (Ghirshman,…

QOM LAKE (DARYĀČA-ye QOM, or Qom Basin), also called Daryāča-ye Sāva, one of the interior watersheds in northwestern Persia (see DRAINAGE). It is situated between the southern flanks of the western Alborz system and the eastern slope of the northern Zagros, and covers just over 92,000 km². It forms the…

QOPČUR (QUPČUR), capitation tax levied by the Mongols (Doerfer I, pp. 387-91).  Qopčur first surfaces (in its Mongolian guise of qubčiri) as a tax on the nomadic population, when Temüjin (ČENGIZ KHAN) levied it on his followers in order to assist his ally Toḡril, khan of the Kereit, who was…

QOŠUN (later Arteš), the organ of the Iranian armed forces (qošun, arteš), published in Tehran from 9 Esfand 1300 until Esfand 1313 Š. (28 February 1922 to March 1935), when the title was changed to Arteš and publication continued until Bahman1315 Š. (January-February 1937). Qošun was published as a weekly…

QOṬB-AL-DIN ḤAYDAR ZĀVI (Zāvagi), a famous Sufi of Turkish origin and founder of the Ḥaydariya sect of the Qalandariya order.  He was born in Zāva, the present-day Torbat-e Ḥaydariya in Khorasan, located 140 km south of Mashad.  His birthday is not known, but since he is said to have lived…

QOṬB-AL-DIN ŠIRĀZI, Maḥmud b. Żiāʾ-al-Din Masʿud b. Moṣleḥ, known also as ʿAllāma Širāzi, al-Šāreḥ al-ʿAllāma, and Mollā Qoṭb and nicknamed Abu’l-Ṯanāʾ, a Persian polymath, Sufi, and poet (b. Shiraz, October 1236; d. Tabriz, 7 February 1311; see Ebn Ḥajar, IV, p. 339; Qāšāni, p. 118). His father, Żiāʾ-al-Din Masʿud Kāzeruni,…

QOTLOḠ TARKĀN ḴĀTUN (or Tarkan), ʿEṢMAT-AL-DONYĀ WA’L-DIN, Qara Ḵetāy ruler of Kerman (655-89/1257-83).  She probably was born between 605-610/1208-1213 in Transoxania; she was enslaved during childhood and acquired by an old merchant from Isfahan, who raised her as his own daughter and provided her with an excellent education (Anonymous, p….

Q ENTRIES: CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS   online entry caption text QADAMGĀH Figure 1. View of Qadamgāh from the south. (Photograph courtesy of B. N. Chagny, Iran-France Mission at Persepolis 2008) QADAMGĀH Figure 2a. Elevation drawing of Qadamgāh (Wells, facing p. 184). QADAMGĀH Figure 2b. Plan drawing of Qadamgāh (Wells, facing…

RABBAN ŠĀPUR, East Syrian monk (7th century CE). The main source concerning Rabban Šāpur is the Chronicle of Seert (LIV, Scher, 1919, II/2, pp. 459 [139]-461 [141]; see Chabot, 1896, p. 30, no. 55; Gismondi, 1897, p. 57-58). We learn the name of Šāpur’s village in Beth Huzāye (see AHWAZ i….

RĀBEṬ, ʿABD-AL-AḤAD, 19th-century Indian author of Persian works (d. 1268/1851-52). He was born at Amthi, the eldest son of Mawlawi Moḥammad-Fāʾeq, and was raised and educated in nearby Lucknow. He entered the service of the East India Company in 1240/1825 and rose to the position of sareštadār (reader) in the…

RABʿ-E RAŠIDI (ربع رشیدی), the charitable foundation (abwāb al-berr) established by the physician, vizier, and historian Rašid-al-Din Fażl-Allāh (ca. 1247-1318) in an eastern suburb of Tabriz (Wilber, no, 34, pp. 129-31).  Due to Rašid-al-Din’s position as one of the chief ministers in the Il-khanid government, he accumulated a vast fortune,…

RADI, AKBAR (Akbar Rādi, b. Rasht, 31 October 1939; d.  Tehran, 26 December 2007; Figure 1), dramatist, short story writer, and university lecturer. Radi was born to a middle class family and was raised in the city of Rasht, where he lived the first eleven years of his life until…