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ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB MOʿTAMAD-AL-DAWLA, “NAŠĀṬ,” Qajar official and poet, born in 1759 into a family of well-known sayyeds in Isfahan, who were originally from Jahrom in Fārs. His grandfather ʿAbd-al-Vahhāb, being the governor of Isfahan, had left considerable wealth to his children. The young ʿAbd-al-Vahhāb was given a thorough traditional education, which…

ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB SAČAL SARMAST ĀŠKĀR, late 18th-early 19th century Sindhi mystical poet. Sačal is one of the numerous poets in the Indus valley who composed mystical poetry not only in their native tongue, Sindhi, and its northern dialect, Siraiki, but also in Urdu and Persian. The grandson of a noted faqir,…

ʿABD-AL-VĀSEʿ JABALĪ, full name EMĀM BADĪʿ-AL-ZAMĀN ʿABD-AL-VĀSEʿ B. ʿABD-AL-JĀMEʿ ḠARJESTĀNĪ JABALĪ, Persian poet, d. 555/1160. He was born to an ʿAlid family of Ḡarǰestān; to judge from his writing, he was well educated, especially in literature. He wrote panegyrics for Toğrel Takīn b. Moḥammad, who in 490/1097 gained control of…

ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD BAḤR-AL-ʿOLŪM, a leading 18th century Indian theologian of the Ḥanafī school. Born in Lucknow in 1144/1731, he was the son of Mollā Neẓām-al-dīn (q.v.), a member of the Ferangī Maḥal family and founder of the Dars-e Neẓāmīya. ʿAbd-al-ʿAlī studied under his father and, sometime after the latter’s death,…

ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN BĪRJANDĪ (or BARJANDĪ), NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN, productive Islamic astronomer, said to have died in 934/1527-28 (although the authority for this date is unclear). His surviving works are as follows: 1. Abʿad o aǰrām (“Distances and sizes of celestial bodies”); Persian, completed 930/1523-24. The title is not original….

ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪM NAṢRALLĀḤ KHAN “QAMAR,” government official, historian, biographer, translator, and grammarian in British India. He was born at Ḵorǰa near Bolandšahr in the early 19th century. His father, Ḥakīm ʿOmar Khan Aḥmadī Ḵešgī, died when ʿAbd-al-ʿAlīm was only ten years old. After his father’s death, ʿAbd-al-ʿAlīm moved to Nizamabad in…

ʿABD-AL-ʿAẒĪM AL-ḤASANĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM B. ʿABDALLĀH B. ʿALĪ B. AL-ḤASAN B. ZAYD B. AL-ḤASAN B. ʿALĪ B. ABŪ ṬĀLEB, Shiʿite ascetic and transmitter buried in the main sanctuary of Ray. Little is known about his life. He must have been born before the year 200/815, probably in Median. There he was…

ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. NAḎR MOḤAMMAD, Toghay-Timurid (Janid) dynast of the Uzbeks, r. 1057-91/1647-80 in Bokhara. His father held Balḵ and Badaḵšān, while Naḏr’s elder brother, Emām-qolī, was khan at Bokhara (1020-51/1611-41). Together they maintained Uzbek independence against the advance of Safavid power in Khorasan under Shah ʿAbbās I. Emām-qolī’s diplomacy, and…

ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ B. ʿABD-AL-VAHHĀB, painter of the Safavid period. According to the historian Qāẓī Aḥmad, both father and son were excellent painters from Kāšān. The son owed his artistic training to Shah Ṭahmāsp (930-84/1524-76) and was employed in the royal workshops at Tabrīz, but he was severely punished by the king…

ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ ḤEKĪMBĀŠĪ (d. 1197/1782-83), an Ottoman physician, son of the Ottoman historian Ṣobḥī. He served as chief physician at the palace and, knowing French and Latin in addition to Persian, translated into Turkish the Persian works Ašǰār o aṯmār of ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn ʿAlīšāh Ḵᵛārazmī al-Boḵārī (d. 1291?) dealing with astronomy and…

ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ MOḤADDEṮ DEHLAVĪ, SHAH, celebrated Sunni theologian and mystic. Born in Delhi on 25 Ramażān 1159/11 October 1746, he claimed Arab ancestry traceable to the second caliph ʿOmar (Shah Valīallāh, al-Emdād fī maʿāṯer al-aǰdād, Delhi, n.d., p. 1). Fifteen generations of his family had lived in India, holding respectable military…

ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ QARA ČELEBIZĀDA (1591-1658), an Ottoman historian and the translator of some Persian works, born in Istanbul in 1000/1591. He was the son of Ḥosām-al-dīn Ḥosayn, a judge (kadi) of Rumeli. After finishing his studies he served as modarres in various madrasas, and at one point became kadi of Istanbul….

ʿABD-AL-ʿAZĪZ SOLṬĀN B. ʿOBAYDALLĀH KHAN, Shaibanid ruler of Bokhara. He was born in Bokhara in 917/1511-12 or in 918/1512-13, according to Tārīḵ-e Rāqemī (see Abu’l-Ḡāzī, II, p. 239, n. 2), or in 920/1514. In this last year news of his birth was received in Ṣabrān on the Sīr Darya, and…

ʿABDAK AL-ṢŪFĪ, an eccentric religious devotee of Kūfa, who also lived for periods at Baghdad, late 2nd/8th to early 3rd/9th centuries. He and the “ʿAbdakites” who were named after him advanced the teaching that the acquisition and possession of worldly goods was permissible only under a righteous leader of the…

ʿABDALLĀH, name appearing on four diverse, high-quality silks of the first half of the 17th century. While ʿAbdallāh could refer to a designer or weaver, it is more likely that he was a workshop entrepreneur who ordered a variety of silks inscribed with his name (the equivalent of 20th century…