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ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN SAMARQANDĪ, ABŪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD B. AḤMAD B. ABĪ AḤMAD, Ḥanafī jurist and Mātorīdī theologian. The attribution of the konya Abū Manṣūr to him by Ebn Abi’l-Wafāʾ and Ebn Qotlūboḡā seems to be erroneous. There is very little information about his life. In his Mīzān al-oṣūl he mentions as his…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN (or ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN) ʿALĪ B. ŠOJĀʿ-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ, Ghurid malek and later sultan, reigned in Ḡūr from Fīrūzkūh as the last of his family there before the extinction of the dynasty by the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, 599-602/1203-96 and 611-12/1214-15. As Malek Żīāʾ-al-dīn, and also bearing the title “the Pearl of Ḡūr,” he acted…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-MOLK, MĪRZĀ MAḤMŪD KHAN DĪBĀ, son of Mīrzā ʿAlī Aṣḡar Mostawfī, governor and minister in the later Qajar period (1258-1344/1842-1925). Born into a family of powerful ʿolamāʾ, the Ṭabāṭabāʾī sayyeds of Tabrīz, he went to Tiflis after ten years of elementary and traditional studies in Iran. Upon his return to…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-MOLK, ḤĀJJĪ MĪRZĀ ʿABDALLĀH KHAN (d. 23 Jomādā II 1308/4 February 1891), holder of various offices under Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah. The son of Mīrzā Nabī Khan Amīr-e Dīvān Qazvīnī and a daughter of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah, in 1275/1858 he was appointed a mosfawfī-e dīvān, i.e. treasury accountant (Eʿtemād-al-salṭana, Tārīḵ-emontaẓam-e Nāṣerī, Tehran, 1298-1300/1881-83,…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-SALṬANA, MOḤAMMAD-ʿALI, prime minister and diplomat of the late Qajar period (d. 14 Ramażān 1336/23 June 1918; Figure 1). Mirzā Moḥammad-ʿAli Khan, also known by the titles Moʿin-al-Wezāra, ʿAlā-al-Salṭana, and Prince, was born while his father, Mirzā Ebrāhim Mohandes, a high-ranking official of the ministry of foreign affairs, was Persia’s…

ʿALĀʾ-AL-SALṬANA, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ KHAN, Qajar diplomat and minister (d. 14 Ramażān 1336/23 June 1918; Figure 1). The son of the Iranian consul general in Baghdad, Mīrzā Ebrāhīm Khan, he was born in that city in 1254/1838. In 1276/1859-60 he became consul general in Bombay, a post he held until 1287/1870-71…

ʿALĀʾI, ŠOʿĀʿ-ALLĀH (1899-1984), prominent government official and a leading Bahai. Ḥosayn, known as Šoʿāʿ-Allāh (angl. Shu’á’u’lláh), ʿAlāʾi was born in Tehran on 16 November 1889, the son of Ḵadijeh Yazdi (known as Bibi-Jān) and Sayyed Moḥammad Nāzem-ol-Ḥokamā Lahijāni, a Muslim cleric who had converted to the Bahai Faith, moved to…

ʿĀLEMPUR, Moḥyi-al-Din (Muhiddin Olimpur/Olimov), Tajik journalist, photographer, and intellectual figure who was instrumental in strengthening cultural ties among Persianate societies (b. in a village of Šamtāč in the district of ʿAyni, 2 March 1945; d., Dushanbe, 12 December 1995). He was raised in a farming family in the mountainous valley…

ʿALĪ or MĪR ʿALĪ TABRĪZĪ, 8th/14th century calligrapher who is often credited with the invention of the nastaʿlīq script. Little is known about his life except that he was a sayyed and a contemporary of both Tīmūr (d. 807/1405) and the poet Kamāl Ḵoǰandī (d. 803/1400); he is also said…

ʿALĪ AKBAR, Imam Ḥosayn’s eldest son, killed at the age of 18, 19, or 25 at the battle of Karbalā on the day of ʿĀšūrā (10 Moḥarram 61/10 October 680). According to most historical sources, ʿAlī Akbar was the first of the Talebites to go out to the battle-field and…

ʿALĪ AKBAR ḤOSAYNĪ ARDESTĀNĪ, Indo-Muslim taḏkera writer, remembered solely for his unpublished Maǰmaʿ al-awlīāʾ, an encyclopedia of Sufi saints compiled in 1043/1633-34 and dedicated to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahān (1037-68/1628-58). Its twelve chapters recount approximately 1,500 lives, beginning with the companions of the Prophet and covering members of the…

ʿALĪ AKBAR ḴEṬĀʾĪ (9th-10th/15th-16th Cent.), author of the Persian Ḵeṭāy-nāma or “Book of Cathay,” i.e., of China. Although his surname suggests that he was a native of China, he writes as if it were a foreign land, so it is likely that the name was given to him after the…

ʿALĪ AKBAR ŠAHMĪRZĀDĪ, ḤĀJJĪ MOLLĀ known as Ḥāǰǰ Āḵund, a prominent Iranian Bahāʾī. Born in Šahmīrzād in 1258/1842, he was the son of Mollā ʿAbbās; he pursued a formal religious education in Mašhad, where he was converted to the Bahāʾī faith. His open expression of his new beliefs caused his…