Explore Iranica

ĀBTĪN (in poetry, ĀBETĪN), father of the mythical king Ferīdūn (q.v., Av. Thraētaona) of the Pīšdādī dynasty. The name appears in the Avesta (Y. 9.7) as āθwya-, equivalent to Skt. āptya-. From it is derived the adjective āθwyānay-, applied to the family of Ferīdūn. In Pahlavi literature the latter appears…

ABŪ AḤMAD B. ABĪ BAKR B. ḤĀMED AL-KĀTEB, poet and official of the Samanids, fl. first half of the 4th/10th century; his exact dates are unknown. His father, Abū Bakr, had been secretary to Amir Esmāʿīl b. Aḥmad (279-95/892-907) and vizier to Aḥmad Esmāʿīl (295-301/907-14) before the vizierate of Abū…

ABŪ AḤMAD YAḤYĀ B. ʿALĪ B. YAḤYĀ B. ABĪ MANṢŪR ABĀN AL-MONAJJEM (241/855-56 to 13 Rabīʿ I 300/29 October 912), literary historian, music theorist, poet, and Muʿtazilite, boon companion to caliphs Mowaffaq, Moʿtażed, and Moktafī. He was one of the Banu’l-Monaǰǰem, a family of Iranian descent associated with the ʿAbbasid…

ABŪ BAKR AL-WARRĀQ, MOḤAMMAD B. ʿOMAR AL-ḤAKĪM, Sufi shaikh, born in Termeḏ, lived and worked in Balḵ, d. 280/893. The oldest sources (Solamī, Ṭabaqāt2, p. 221.4ff.; Anṣārī, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfīya, ed. Qandahārī, Kabul, 1340 Š./1960, p. 262) mention as his teachers the following: Aḥmad b. Ḵeżrōya of Balḵ (d. 240/854-55; see…

ABŪ BAKR B. ABĪ ṢĀLEḤ, vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. He is first heard of as the second vizier to serve Sultan Farroḵzād b. Masʿūd (443-51/1052-59). He was called to this office, probably at the end of 445 or beginning of 446/spring-summer, 1055, in succession to Ḥosayn…

ABŪ BAKR B. SAʿD B. ZANGĪ B. MAWDŪD, also known as MOẒAFFAR-AL-DĪN QUTLUḠ KHAN, 623-58/1226-60, member of the Salghurid dynasty, atabeg of Fārs. He rebelled against his father, Saʿd I, during the latter’s disputes with two princes of the Khwarazmian royal house and was cast into prison. Shortly before his…

ABŪ BAKR ḤAṢĪRĪ (ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ BAKR ʿABDALLĀH B. YŪSOF SĪSTĀNĪ), Shafeʿite faqīh (jurist) and Ghaznavid official, d. 424/1033. According to the poet Farroḵī he came from a well-reputed family in Sīstān, and his father was a man of learning. Abū Bakr strove to implement the religious policy of Sultan Maḥmūd, persecuting…

ABŪ BAKR KALĀBĀḎĪ BOḴĀRĪ MOḤAMMAD B. ABĪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM B. YAʿQŪB, author of the well-known compendium of Sufism al-Taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwof. Little is known about his life. He originated from Kalābāḏ, a quarter of Bokhara, and was born probably not later than 320/932, since he heard Hadith from Abu’l-Nāṣer…

ABŪ BAKR B. AḤMAD MARVAZĪ, 7th/13th century metalworker. His work is known through a series of cast bronze cauldrons which bear the signature ʿamal-e Abū Bakr b. Aḥmad Marvazī. Six such cauldrons are known to exist. Two were known to L. A. Mayer (Islamic Metalworkers, p. 24), and four more…

ABŪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD B. EBRĀHĪM B. MONḎER NAYSĀBŪRĪ, a jurist loosely belonging to the Shafeʿite school. The date of his birth is unknown. He studied in Egypt under two immediate disciples of Šāfeʿī (Moḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd-al-Ḥakam and Rabīʿ b. Solaymān Jīzī) and then lived in Mecca, where he…

ABŪ BAKR QOHESTĀNĪ, ʿAMĪD-AL-MOLK ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN, fl. 5th/11th century, a courtier and man of letters under the Ghaznavids and Saljuqs; himself a poet, he patronized poetry generously. He is said to have been originally from Roḵḵaǰ. He was still a young man when he gained the attention of Sultan…

ABŪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD B. AL-YAMĀN AL-SAMARQANDĪ (d. 268/881), a Hanafite jurist about whose life the available sources furnish no information. It seems that he combined both feqh and kalām and that he paved the way for his famous compatriot Abū Manṣūr Mātorīdī (q.v., d. 333/1041). The sources mention the titles…

ABŪ BAKR B. MOḤAMMAD B. AḤMAD WĀʿEẒ SARAḴSĪ, IMAM, a follower (but apparently not a contemporary) of Shaikh Abū Saʿīd b. Abi’l-Ḵayr (d. 440/1049). Abū Bakr appears in two narratives of the Asrār al-tawḥīd, relating stories he heard from those who had known the shaikh directly. In one, he simply…

ABŪ BAKR ṬŪSĪ ḤAYDARĪ, 7th/13th century Indo-Muslim saint. Nothing is known of his pre-Indian background, but reliable taḏkera writers describe him as a contemporaryof Shaikh Neẓām-al-dīn Awlīāʾ (636-725/1238-39 to 1325) who was on the best of terms with him and with other Češtī saints (Jamālī, p. 67; ʿAbd-al-Ḥaqq, p. 73)….