Explore Iranica

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA, MOḤAMMAD RAḤĪM KHAN AMĪR-E NEẒĀM (d. 1299/1882), notable of the Qajar tribe and holder of high offices under Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah. He belonged to the Yoḵārībāš faction and Davallū clan of the Qajars of Gorgān, and was the son of Moḥammad Amīn Khan, who had held the post of nasaqčībāšī…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA ḎU’L-QADAR, early 9th/15th century ruler of Maṛʿaš and Albestān in the kingdom of Little Armenia, east of the Taurus mountains. His daughter was married to the Āq Qoyunlū Sultan Morād, and he gave asylum to the latter when he was a fugitive from the Safavids in 909/1503. After the…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA ḤASAN B. ROSTAM B. ʿALĪ B. ŠAHRĪĀR, ŠARAF-AL-MOLŪK, Bavandid ruler of Māzandarān. According to the account of Ebn Esfandīār, he reigned from 558/1163 to 566/1171. For chronological reasons, it seems more likely that the date given by Ebn al-Aṯīr for his accession, 560/1165, is correct and that his reign…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA ABŪ JAʿFAR MOḤAMMAD B. ROSTAM DOŠMANZĪĀR B. MARZOBĀN (d. 433/1041), Daylamī military leader and founder of the shortlived but significant Kakuyid dynasty, which existed independently in Jebāl and then survived subsequently, under Saljuq aegis, in Abarqūh and Yazd. The sources frequently accord him the name of Ebn Kākūya or…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA SEMNĀNĪ, ROKN-AL-DĪN ABU’L-MAKĀREM AḤMAD B. ŠARAF-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD B. AḤMAD AL-BĪĀBĀNAKĪ (b. Ḏu’l-ḥeǰǰa, 659/November, 1261, d. 21 or 22 Raǰab 736/5 or 6 March 1336), famous mystic of the Il-khanid period, opponent of the growing influence of Ebn ʿArabī in Iran. He stemmed from a family of wealthy landlords at…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA ʿALĪ B. ḤOSĀM-AL-DAWLA ŠAHRĪĀR B. QĀREN (511-34/1117-40), ruler of the Espahbadīya line of the local dynasty of the Bavandids (see Āl-e Bāvand) in the Caspian region of Māzandarān. Under his rule, the dynasty achieved an importance transcending the local Caspian scene, for at various times the weakness of the…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA, MĪRZĀ AḤMAD KHAN (d. 1329/1911), the son of Moḥammad Raḥīm Khan ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla. According to Bāmdād (Reǰāl I, p. 90) he was born in 1283/1866-67, but this date is doubtful since he accompanied the shah on the royal voyage to Europe in 1290/1873 (Eʿtemād-al-salṭana, Montaẓam-e Nāṣerī, Tehran, 1298-1300/1881-83, III, p….

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA, ROKN-AL-DĪN MĪRZĀ B. BĀYSONQOR B. ŠĀHROḴ, Timurid prince (820-65/1417-60). A great-grandson of the conqueror Tīmūr, ʿAlāʾ-al-dawla was born in Herat during the reign of Šāhroḵ b. Tīmūr in 820/1417 to Jān Malek Āḡā, the daughter of a Timurid officer, Amīr Čolpān, and Šāhroḵ’s son Bāysonqor (Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, Zobdat al-tawārīḵ-e…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN ŠAMS-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD BĪRJANDĪ, a metalworker who lived between the late 15th and the early 16th century A.D. His nesba suggests that either he or his family hailed from Bīrǰand, in the 8th/14th and 9th/15th centuries an important provincial town in Qūhestān. Two bronze objects with his signature are recorded:…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN ḤOSAYN B. ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN ḤOSAYN, called JAHĀNSŪZ, Ghurid sultan and the first ruler of the Šansabānī family to make the Ghurids a major power in the eastern Islamic world (544-56/1149-61). By the early 6th/12th century the Šansabānī chiefs had acquired the main power in the mountainous region of Ḡūr in…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD SHAH ḴALJĪ, sultan of Delhi (r. 695-715/1296-1316). Before gaining the throne, he had been governor of Kara under his uncle and father-in-law, king Jalāl-al-dīn Fīrūz Shah Ḵalǰī. In 695/1295 he led a victorious campaign against the kingdom of Deogir (Deccan) and returned laden with plunder; King Jalāl-al-dīn went…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD, naqīb of Isfahan in the Timurid period and ancestor of prominent religious-legal dignitaries of the Safavid period. On his mother’s side he was related to the Golestāna sayyeds. In the reign of Šāhroḵ (807-50/1405-47), son of Tīmūr, the officials of the Isfahan administration were unable to pay the…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD B. JALĀL-AL-DĪN ḤASAN, chief of the Ismaʿilis of Alamūt (d. 653/1255). When ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn succeeded his father in Ramażān, 618/November, 1221, at the age of nine, at first Jalāl-al-dīn’s vizier remained as effective ruler of Alamūt, continuing the policy of accommodation with the ʿAbbasid caliphate and with Sunni Islam….

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN ABU’L-FATḤ MOḤAMMAD B. TEKIŠ B. IL-ARSLAN, Ḵᵛārazmšāh who reigned in Transoxania and central and eastern Iran as well as in Ḵᵛārazm, 596-617/1200-20. ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn Moḥammad (before his succession to supreme power he was actually known by the laqab or honorific of Qoṭb-al-dīn, traditional amongst the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs of Anūštigin’s line) was the…