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ʿABBĀSĪ RABENJANĪ, ABU’L-ʿABBĀS (or ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH), a Samanid poet from Rabenǰān, a city near Samarqand, south of the Soḡd river. He flourished in the first half of the 4th/10th century; a one-line fragment of his poetry praises the ruler Naṣr b. Aḥmad (r. 301-31/914-42) at the beginning of the year…

ʿABBĀSĪ, ŠAYḴ, a Safavid miniature painter, whose known works include seventeen signed and dated examples executed between the years 1060/1650 and 1095/1683-84. Throughout his career it was his normal practice to sign his paintings with an obsequious formula which was written in minute characters, usually in a small rectangular panel…

ʿABBASID CALIPHATE in Iran. The aim of the present article is not to give a chronological history of Persia under ʿAbbasid rule but to examine some of the main trends affecting the political, religious, and cultural development of Persia during the period when ʿAbbasid rule was effective there—essentially from the…

ʿABD-AL-BAHĀʾ, epithet assumed by ʿAbbās Effendi, the eldest son of Bahāʾallāh, founder of the Bahaʾi movement. The epithet means “servant of the glory of God” or “servant of Bahāʾallāh.” i. Life and work. ii. Teachings. i. Life and Work ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ was born in Tehran on 23 May 1844. He accompanied…

ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ LAʿLĪZĀDA (d. 1746 A.D.), Ottoman scholar, son of Shaikh Laʿlī Meḥmed, the grandson of Sarı ʿAbdallāh, a commentator on the Maṯnavī. After receiving a good education he became the teacher of the grand vizier ʿAlī Pasha; and after the latter’s defeat in the Morea, he was banished to the…

ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ NAHĀVANDĪ, Mughal noble and biographer. He was born in 978/1570 at Julak near Nahāvand, which his ancestors had held in rent-free tenure from the Safavid king Shah Esmāʿīl. ʿAbd-al-Bāqī’s father, Ḵᵛāǰa Āqā Bābā, a Kurdish poet who had adopted the pen name of Modrekī, was appointed by Shah ʿAbbās…

ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ TABRĪZĪ, MĪR, called DĀNEŠMAND, religious scholar and notable of Azerbaijan (d. 1039/1629-30). He was learned in philosophy and mathematics and skilled in Arabic poetry. He also wrote good Persian poetry, using the pen name (taḵalloṣ) Bāqī, and was expert in the calligraphic styles called ṯolṯ, nasḵ, and nastaʿlīq. His…

ʿABD-AL-BĀQĪ YAZDĪ, Safavid official and poet skilled in calligraphy, killed at the battle of Čālderān in Raǰab, 920/August, 1514. He was a descendant of the founder of the Neʿmatallāhī order, Nūr-al-dīn Neʿmatallāh (q.v.; 730-834/1330-1431). He has been called the son of Naʿīm-al-dīn Neʿmatallāh Ṯānī, but a different line of descent…

ʿABD-AL-BARĪ, QĪĀM-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD, early 20th century Indian scholar and pīr of the Ferangī Maḥal family. Born in Lucknow in 1295/1878, he was descended on his father’s side from a distinguished line of pīrs and on his mother’s side from Mollā Ḥaydar, who had established the Hyderabad branch of the Ferangī…

ʿABD-AL-FATTĀḤ GARMRŪDĪ (ca. 1200-64/1786-1848), a scribe and minor author of the mid-Qajar period. He was born into a clerical family in Kasalān, a village in the Garmrūd area near Tabrīz. Against his father’s wishes, he entered government service early in his youth as an accountant in Mīāna. After a time…

ʿABD-AL-FATTĀH ḤOSAYNĪ ʿASKARĪ, Indian scholar of Persian and Arabic. He left two works. 1. Meftāḥ al-maʿānī, a commentary in six daftars on the Maṯnavī of Rūmī, was collected by the author’s pupil, Hedāyatallāh, in 1049/1639-40. (See A. Sprenger, A Catalogue of the … Manuscripts of the Libraries of the King…

ʿABD-AL-ḠANĪ KHAN MEO, MAWLAVĪ MOḤAMMAD (poetical name, ḠANĪ), Indian literary scholar. He was born and raised in Farrukhabad, but the exact date of his birth is not known. He joined the education service in Hyderabad (Deccan) as a teacher of Arabic and Persian, eventually becoming chairman of the Arabic department…

ʿABD-AL-HĀDĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ, ĀYATALLĀH ḤĀJJ SAYYED (1305-82/1888-1962), a Šīʿī scholar of Naǰaf, highly regarded for his learning and piety. His father, Mīrzā Esmāʿīl Šīrāzī, also a faqīh, was a cousin of the celebrated Mīrzā Ḥasan Šīrāzī the moǰadded, and had worked with him in establishing a new center of Šīʿī learning and…

ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. ABUʾL-ḤADĪD, ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN ABŪ ḤĀMED B. HEBATALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. AL-ḤOSAYN AL-MADĀʾENĪ, Muʿtazilite scholar and man of letters. He was born in Madāʾen on 1 Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa 586/30 December 1190; his family was Shafeʿite, his father a judge. ʿAbd-al-Ḥamīd came to Baghdad at an early age, for he…

ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-AL-SAMAD ŠĪRĀZĪ, vizier of the Ghaznavids in the late 5th/11th to early 6th/12th century. He is described as serving Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (451-92/1059-99) for twenty-two years and then his son Masʿūd III (492-508/1099-1115) for all sixteen years of his reign, which would mean…