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ʿADL, MOṢṬAFĀ (b. 1261 Š./1882 – d. 1329 Š./1950), jurist, professor of law, diplomat, minister and senator, known by the title Manṣur-al-Salṭana (FIGURE 1). His father, Rokn-al-ʿAdāla, was a notable in Azerbaijan and the chief justice of the province of Ḵorāsān (Mojtahedi, p. 119). ʿAdl received his primary education in…

ʿADL-E MOẒAFFAR “Moẓaffar’s justice.” i. The phrase. ii. The newspaper.   i. The Phrase The phrase ʿadl-e Moẓaffar is connected with the events of the constitutional revolution (1905-11). Because of the pressure of religious leaders and the steadfastness of merchants and other opponents who had taken bast “sanctuary” in the…

ʿADNĪ, MAḤMŪD PĀŠĀ (879/1474), Ottoman vizier and poet, better known in Turkish literature by his pen name ʿAdnī. Born to a Greek or Serbian family, Maḥmūd Pāšā finished his studies in the palace at Edirne before the accession of Sultan Moḥammad II to the throne. The sultan raised him to…

ʿAFĪF, ŠAMS SERĀJ (d. ca. 802/1399), author of Tārīḵ-eFīrūzšāhī, a Persian life of Fīrūz Shah Toḡloq (r. 752-90/1351-88). Like his father, grandfather and great grandfather before him, ʿAfīf served the Toḡloq court at Delhi in various capacities. His work betrays a fond attachment to Fīrūz Shah, since it portrays even…

ʿAJABŠĪR, a town and baḵš in East Azerbaijan. The baḵš, one of four comprised in the šahrestān of Marāḡa, is bounded on the north by the baḵš of Āḏaršahr, on the west and south by Lake Urmia (Reżāʾīya), and on the east by the central baḵš of Marāḡa. It consists…

ʿAJAM, the name given in medieval Arabic literature to the non-Arabs of the Islamic empire, but applied especially to the Persians. In origin, the verb ʿaǰama simply means “to speak indistinctly, to mumble;” hence ʿAǰam or ʿOǰm are “the indistinct speakers,” sc. the non-Arabs. The Arabic lexica state at the…

ʿAJAMĪ B. ABŪ BAKR, 6th/12th century architect under the Eldigüzid atabegs, founder of the Nakhchevan architectural school, ʿAǰamī’s name is connected with the erection of two mausoleums in the town of Naḵǰavān (Nakhchevan)—that of Yūsof b. Koṯayyer (the “Aṭābābā” mausoleum), and that of Moʾmena Ḵātūn (the “Atabek” mausoleum). These are…

ʿAJĀʾEB AL-DONYĀ or ʿAJĀʾEB AL-AŠYĀʾ (“Wonders of the world” or “Wonderful things”), title of a Persian geography of the ʿaǰaʾeb al-maḵlūqāt type, extant in three MSS, at the Leningrad Oriental Institute (probably 11th/17th cent.), Cambridge University (modern), and the Maǰles Library in Tehran (apparently late 10th/16th-early 11th/17th cent.). The spurious brief…

ʿAJĀʾEB AL-MAḴLŪQĀT (“The marvels of created things”), the name of a genre of classical Islamic literature and, in particular, of a work by Zakarīyāʾ b. Moḥammad Qazvīnī. i. Arabic works. ii. Persian works.   i. Arabic Works Works of this sort form part of a general interest by Muslim scholars…

ʿAJĀʾEB AL-MAQDŪR FĪ NAWAʾEB TĪMŪR (“The wondrous turns of fate in the vicissitudes of Tīmūr”), a history of the life and conquests of Tīmūr (736-807/1336-1405), including a survey of developments after his death, written in ornate Arabic rhyming prose (saǰʿ) by Aḥmad b. ʿArabšāh Demašqī (791-854/1389-1450). Ebn ʿArabšāh was deported…

ʿAJEZ, NARAYAN KAUL, Kashmiri Brahman of the 17th-18th centuries, a poet and compiler of Moḵtaṣar-e tārīḵ-e Kašmīr (1710-11; see Storey, I/1, pp. 681-82). No biographical details are available. During the Mughal period Persian-language historiography flourished in Kashmir, drawing on a long tradition of Sanskrit historical writing there. Two notable 17th…

ʿAJIB MĀZANDARĀNI, MOḤAMMAD ḴALĪL B. MOḤAMMAD ḤOSAYN, poet (d. ca. 1280/1863 or 1289/1872). Born at Bārforuš (now Bābol), he moved with his father to Tehran when he was eight years old and at an early age began to compose poems. The panegyrics he declaimed at social gatherings gave him access…

ʿAKKĀS-BĀŠĪ, EBRĀHĪM (family name later, Moṣawwer Raḥmānī), photographer and pioneer motion-picture cameraman, b. Raǰab, 1291/August, 1874, d. 1333/1915. Mīrzā Ebrāhīm’s father, Mīrzā Aḥmad Ṣanīʿ-al-salṭana (b. 1264/1848), converted to the Bahaʾi faith and corresponded with ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ, who named him Moṣawwer Raḥmānī “the divine illustrator.” He left Iran secretly in the company…

ʿĀLAM II, SHAH, Mughal emperor (1173-1253/1759-1806). Following the assassination of his father, ʿĀlamgīr II, on 4 Jomādā I 1173/24 December 1759, Mīrzā ʿAbdallāh ʿAlī Gowhar claimed the throne and adopted the name Abu’l-Moẓaffar Jalāl-al-dīn Moḥammad Shah ʿĀlam II. He was heir to a declining empire that was challenged by various…

ʿALAM KHAN ʿARAB-E ḴOZAYMA, AMIR, viceroy of the Afsharid state of Khorasan, 1161-68/1748-54. The son of Esmāʿīl Khan, one of Nāder Shah’s chief officers, ʿAlam Khan campaigned for Nāder Shah with his father at the head of the contingent of Ḵozayma Arabs (who had been settled in Khorasan since the…