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ʿENĀYAT-ALLĀHKANBO, (b. in Burhanpur, 19 Jomādā I 1017/31 August 1608; d. in Delhi on 19 Jomādā I 1082/23 September 1671), Sufi and scholar, descendant of an old respected Lahore family that had converted to Islam in Punjab. The family had risen to prominence as scholars, Sufi saints, and officers in…

ʿERĀQ, musical mode mentioned for the first time in the 11th century by Kaykāvūs b. Eskandar (p. 196) among some ten modes; it is also listed as one of twelve frets (parda) by Nīšābūrī (p. 100) toward the end of the 12th century. According to Nīšābūrī, transposing the register of…

ʿERĀQ-E ʿAJAM (or ʿArāq-e ʿAjam), constitutionalist newspaper published in Tehran, 1907-08. It was the organ of the Tehran-based Anjoman-e ʿErāq-e ʿAjam, a pro-constitutionalist society gathered around the idea of improving and enhancing life in the central geographical area in Iran known by this name (Persian Iraq), including towns such as Kashan, Narāq,…

ʿERĀQ-EʿAJAM(Ī) “Persian Iraq,” the name given in medieval times to the largely mountainous, western portion of modern Persia. The geographers (Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 195; Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 357-58, tr. Kramers and Wiet, pp. 349-50; Moqaddasī, pp. 384-86; Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, p. 131; Yāqūt, Boldān [Beirut], II, p. 99) describe it…

ʿERĀQĪ,FAḴR-al-DĪN EBRĀHĪM b. Bozorgmehr Javāleqī Hamadānī (b. Komjān, a village near Hamadān, ca. 610/1213-14, d. Damascus 688/1289), Sufi poet and author. A biography that may be as late as the beginning of the 9th/15th century provides most of what is known about his life (publ. in Kollīyāt, pp. 46-65); many…

ʿERFĀN (lit., knowledge), Islamic theosophy. In its generic use, the term ʿerfān as describing Islamic “theosophy,” is a broad and somewhat amorphous concept adopted by 20th century scholarship for intellectual developments that combine Sufi thought and Twelver Shiʿite philosophy. The modern use of the term (1) emphasizes the mystico-philosophical side…

ʿERFĀN, title of two Persian magazines and a newspaper. 1. The last title of a monthly magazine first published in Kabul by the Office of Sciences (Bayt al-ʿolūm) of the Ministry of Education in Sonbola 1298 Š./August 1919. The magazine’s original title was Moʿarref-e maʿāref. Its first publisher and editor…

ʿERFĀN, ḤASAN (Hasan Aliḵonovič Mamadḵonov; b. 3 March 1900 at Samarkand; d. 22 June 1973, Figure 1), Tajik translator and writer. Raised in a lower middle class family, he went to both native schools and a Russian gymnasium (probably in Baku, where his father may have worked). In 1916, he…

ʿEṢĀMĪ, ʿABD-AL-MALEK (fl. 751/1350), Indo-Muslim poet writing in Persian. Since he gives his age as forty when he composed his Fotūḥ al-salāṭīn (p. 616), he must have been born around 711/1311-12. He tells us nothing about his father. No other source corroborates his claim that an ancestor, Faḵr-al-Molk ʿEṣāmī, had…

ʿEṢMAT BOḴĀRĪ, Ḵᵛāja ʿEṢMAT-ALLĀH b. Masʿūd Boḵārī (d. 840/1436), poet and scholar of the early Timurid period, known also for his expertise in mathematics, history, prosody, riddles, and mastery of enšāʾ. His lineage is traced back to Jaʿfar b. Abī Ṭāleb. In his poetry he occasionally refers to his Shiʿite…

ʿEŠQ, shaikh ḡolām moḥyĪ-al-dĪn MOBTALĀ, 18th-19th century author writing in Persian and Urdu. He was born in Meerut, in present day Uttar Pradesh, and later moved to Delhi where he was employed by Nawwāb Najaf Khan (d. 1169/1782; Rieu, Pers. Man. II, p. 723), Amīr-al-Omarāʾ to Shah ʿĀlam II (d….

ʿEŠQĪ BELGRĀMĪ, SHAH BARKAT-ALLĀH, Indo-Persian poet and author (b. 1070/1659-60; d. 10 Moḥarram 1142/5 August 1729). ʿEšqī’s lineage is traced to Imam ʿAlī and Fāṭema, the daughter of the Prophet, by thirteen generations. His father was Mīr Sayyed Oways (d. 1097/1686) and his grandfather was Mīr Sayyed Shah ʿAbd-al-Jalīl (972-1057/1564-1647),…