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ʿABD-AL-JALĪL QAZVĪNĪ RĀZĪ, NAṢĪR-AL-DĪN ABŪ RAŠĪD B. ABU’L-ḤOSAYN B. ABU’L-FAŻL, Emāmī Shiʿite scholar, preacher, and author, b. probably early in the 6th/12th century. He or his family originated from Qazvīn, but he lived most of his life in Ray. A few facts about his life can be gleaned from biographical…

ʿABD-AL-ḴĀLEQ ḠOJDOVĀNĪ, teacher and distinguished saint of the Selsela-ye Ḵᵛāǰagān (Naqšbandī order), d. 617/1220. His birthplace, the modern Gizhduvan in Uzbekistan, was an important commercial center, according to Samʿānī [Leiden], fol. 406b). His father, ʿAbd-al-Jamīl, had originally lived at Malatya (Melitene). At the age of 22, ʿAbd-al-Ḵāleq became the disciple…

ʿABD-AL-ḴĀN, an Arab tribe of Ḵūzestān. It was originally affiliated with the Banī Lām tribal confederacy and resided in the region of ʿAmāra, in what is today Iraq. Around 1850, it moved to Iran, along with several other Banī Lām tribes. The Ottoman government demanded the forced repatriation of these…

ʿABD-AL-KARĪM B. MĪR ESMĀʿĪL BOḴĀRĪ, MĪR[ZĀ] (d. after 1246/1830-31), Bokharan traveler and memorialist. Data regarding him are found in his one known work, which was left untitled (Histoire, ed. C. Schefer; see bibliog.). As his nesba shows, he was apparently born in or near Bokhara. At the age of sixteen…

ʿABD-AL-KARĪM GAZĪ (or JAZĪ, 1272-1339/1856-1921), a respected religious leader of Isfahan. Born to one Mollā Mandī in the village of Gaz (or Jaz) to the north of Isfahan, he studied the religious sciences, first in Isfahan under Moḥammad Ṣādeq Ketābforūš and Mīrzā Moḥammad Ḥasan Naǰafī, then under a succession of…

ʿABD-AL-KARĪM B. ḴᵛĀJA ʿĀQEBAT MAḤMŪD B. ḴᵛĀJA BOLĀQĪ KAŠMĪRĪ, a noted chronicler of Nāder Shah’s military campaigns. Little is known of his birth or early life. A Kashmiri by origin, ʿAbd-al-Karīm was living in Shahjahanabad (old Delhi) when Nāder Shah entered the city in 1151/1739. Being keen to perform the…

ʿABD-AL-KARĪM B. ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN ḴᵛĀRAZMĪ, a poet and calligrapher living in western Iran during the late 9th/15th century (Plate III). He is usually mentioned in relation to his brother, ʿAbd-al-Raḥīm, or his father, ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān. Various authors, including Sām Mīrzā, Qāżī Aḥmad, and Ḥakīm Shah Moḥammad Qazvīnī, speak of the great similarity…

ʿABD-AL-KARĪM ʿALAVĪ, MONŠĪ MOḤAMMAD, early 19th century Indo-Persian historian (d. ca. 1851). At a time when ornate literary conventions still prevailed, he was notable for his simplicity of narration. In recording events, he relied on oral and written accounts of participants and eyewitnesses. He was, however, somewhat credulous and occasionally…

ʿABD-AL-LAṬĪF BHETĀʾĪ, SHAH, Sufi poet of Sind. Born in the village of Haveli, near Hala, in the district of Hyderabad, in 1101/1689, he eventually established a small settlement near his native town and named it Bhit (“sandhill”). Details of his life are lacking. After his death in 1165/1752, Ḡolām Šāh…

ʿABD-AL-LAṬĪF MĪRZĀ, SULTAN, Timurid ruler in Samarqand from Ramażān, 853/October, 1449 to 26 Rabīʿ I 854/8 May 1450. He was the son of Uluḡ Beg (q.v.) and Roqyā Ḵātūn Arolat (Moʿezz al-ansāb, fol. 140b.) but was raised at his grandfather Šāhroḵ’s court in Herat according to Timurid custom. Rivalries with…

ʿABD-AL-MAJĪD ṬĀLAQĀNĪ, revered as the calligrapher who gave šekasta script its definitive form. Born in the Ṭālaqān district of Qazvīn about 1150/1737-38, he was educated in Isfahan where he died (1185/1771-72). Of an ascetic disposition, he is also known as Darvīš ʿAbd-al-Maǰīd (Fażāʾelī, Aṭlas, pp. 618-19; Bāmdād, Reǰāl II, p….

ʿABD-AL-MALEK B. NŪḤ B. MANṢŪR, ABU’L-FAVĀRES, the penultimate ruler of the Samanid dynasty in Khorasan and Transoxania, r. 389/999. In the decade of the 380s/990s, the Samanid amirate was being subverted internally by the rivalries of ambitious Turkish military commanders and was attacked externally after 382/992 by the Qarakhanid Turkish…

ʿABD-AL-MALEK B. NŪḤ B. NAṢR, ABU’L-FAVĀRES, ruler of the Samanid dynasty in Transoxania and Khorasan, 343-350/954-61. The historian of Bokhara, Naršaḵī, and the Ghaznavid historian Gardīzī accord him the designation of al-Amīr al-Rašīd, but it appears from his coins that he was called al-Malek al-Movaffaq during his lifetime, and it…

ʿABD-AL-MALEK B. MOḤAMMAD ŠĪRĀZĪ, ABU’L-ḤOSAYN, astronomer, fl. ca. 600/1203-04; there is a manuscript dated in that year of his revision of Helāl b. Abū Helāl and Ṯābet b. Qorra’s translation of the Conica of Appolonius. ʿAbd-al-Malek also wrote a Moḵtaṣar ketāb al-maǰesṭī (“Epitome of the Almagest” [of Ptolemy]); this was…

ʿABD-AL-MALEKĪ, a Lek tribe of Māzandarān. Long ago (possibly during the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I, when many tribes were transplanted from western Iran to the northeastern marches), the ʿAbd-al-Malekīs were moved from Kurdistan to the Darragaz (Moḥammadābād) area of Khorasan. There they were absorbed by the Qašqāʾī tribal confederacy…