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ʿAWĀREŻ, term used since 4th/10th century to denote extraordinary imposts of various kinds, the nature of which differed per area and historic period. ʿAwāreż (sing. ʿāreża) was used as a singular, so that in later times we encounter the pluralized form ʿawāreżāt. Ḵᵛārazmī (Mafātīḥ, p. 61) referred to extraordinary contributions…

ʿAWFĪ, SADĪD-AL-DĪN (NŪR-AL-DĪN, or JAMĀL-AL-DĪN) MOḤAMMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. ṬĀHER B. ʿOṮMĀN BOḴĀRĪ ḤANAFĪ, an important Persian writer of the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries. The little that we know about ʿAwfī’s life comes mainly from his own writings. He appears to have been born around the…

ʿAYN-AL-DAWLA, SOLṬĀN ʿABD-AL-MAJĪD MĪRZĀ ATĀBAK-E AʿẒAM (1261-1345/1845-1926) son of Solṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā ʿAżod-al-dawla, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah’s forty-eighth son and a prominent political figure of Moẓaffar-al-dīn Shah’s reign (1313-24/1896-1907). He is mainly remembered in modern Iranian history for his “reactionary stubborn character” which, as pointed out by Sykes (History II, p. 399),…

ʿAYN-AL-QOŻĀT HAMADĀNĪ, ABU’L-MAʿĀLĪ ʿABDALLĀH B. ABĪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD MAYĀNEJĪ (492/1098-526/1131), brilliant mystic philosopher and Sufi martyr. Born at Hamadān, he was a descendant in a line of scholars from Mīāna, a small town between Tabrīz and Marāḡa in Azerbaijan. His immediate ancestors were a family of judges of Hamadān with…

ʿAYNI, KAMĀL (Kamol Aĭnī in the Tajik orthography), Tajik literary critic (b. in Samarkand on 15 May 1928, d. in Dushanbe on 14 August 2010, Figure 1). Education. The son of the prominent Soviet Tajik literary figure Ṣadr-al-Din ʿAyni, he was born with the birth name Kamāl-al-Din, and received his…

ʿAYNĪ, ṢADR-AL-DĪN (1878-1954), poet, novelist, and the leading figure of Soviet Tajik literature, born 18 Rabīʿ II 1295/15 April 1878 in the village of Sāktarī in the emirate of Bukhara, a Russian protectorate. His father, Saidmurad-hoja, (Sayyed Morād ḵᵛāja), a village craftsman, influenced his son’s early intellectual development. Although his…

ʿAYYĀR, a noun meaning literally “vagabond,” applied to members of medieval fotowwa (fotūwa) brotherhoods and comparable popular organizations. i. General. ii. ʿAyyār in Persian sources.   i. General The history of ʿayyārs and ʿayyārī presents a paradox. On the one hand, there can be little doubt as to their pre-Islamic…

ʿAYYĀŠĪ, ABU’L-NAŻR MOḤAMMAD B. MASʿŪD B. MOḤAMMAD B. AL-ʿAYYĀŠ AL-SOLAMĪ SAMARQANDĪ, Imami jurist and scholar of the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries. It is said that he descended from the tribe of Tamīm and was born and raised as a Sunni, but while still young he was converted to the Shiʿite Imami faith….

ʿAYYŪQĪ, a poet of the fifth/eleventh century who versified the romance of Varqa o Golšāh. In it he gives his name as ʿAyyūqī (ed. Ṣafā, pp. 3, 122) and complains in the concluding section (p. 116) about ill-treatment by the people of his town. Apart from this, no reliable information…

ʿAZĀDĀRĪ, to hold a commemoration of the dead, by extension, mourning, a word deriving from Arabic ʿazāʾ, which means commemorating the dead. This is also the basic meaning of the cognate taʿzīa, which came to designate in addition the passion plays mounted in Moḥarram. Details of the commemoration of the…

ʿAẒĪM NAVĀZ KHAN BAHĀDOR, MOʿTAMED JANG ʿOMDAT-AL-ʿOLAMĀʾ MAWLAWĪ MOḤAMMAD SEBḠATALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD ḠAWṮ (fl. 1859), the author of a Sunni account in Persian of the martyrdom of Imam Ḥosayn called Dāstān-e ḡam (completed in 1250/1834-35; Madras, 1843) and the superintendent of the compilation of the ʿAẓīm al-tawārīḵ, a political and…

ʿAẒĪMĀBĀD (Patna), ancient Pataliputra, present capital of Bihar state in northeast India. After its great days as the capital of the Mauryas (321-185 B.C.) and the Guptas (A.D. 319-550) Pataliputra got relegated to the position of a small town. Its fortune revived when Šēr Shah (r. 947-52/1540-45), impressed by the…

ʿAZĪZ KHAN MOKRĪ, SARDĀR-E KOLL (1207-87/1792-1871), an army chief and dignitary of Qajar Iran who occupied high-ranking positions from early in Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah’s reign (1204-1313/1848-96). ʿAzīz Khan was the son of Moḥammad Khan (also called Moḥammad Solṭān). He was sardār of the Bābā Mīrī family of the Mokrīs (Nikitine, Les…

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