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ABŪ ḎARR BŪZJĀNĪ, a Persian poet and Sufi shaikh contemporary with Sebüktigin (d. 387/997). Abū Ḏarr lived in the madrasa at Būzǰān. According to Jāmī (Nafaḥāt, pp. 356-57) he worked wonders, and died in 366-67/977. He is not discussed in other sources. Two Persian and one Arabic bayt are the…

ABŪ ḎARR HERAVĪ (full name: ABŪ ḎARR ʿABDALLĀH B. AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD HERAVĪ ANṢĀRĪ MĀLEKĪ), a traditionist known primarily for his role in the transmission of Boḵārī’s Jāmeʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ. Born in Herat about 355/966, he traveled to several centers of learning to study with well-known traditionists. In Baghdad he acquired…

ABŪ DOLAF AL-YANBŪʿĪ, MESʿAR B. MOHALHEL AL-ḴAZRAJĪ, Arab traveler, poet, and frequenter of the Buyid court (ca. mid-4th/10th century). Reliable details concerning Abū Dolaf’s life are few because of the questionable truthfulness of his two travel accounts. In these works he implies acquaintance with the Samanid court of Naṣr b….

ABŪ DOLAF AL-QĀSEM B. ʿĪSĀ B. EDRĪS B. MAʿQEL AL-ʿEJLĪ, Arab military chieftain, author, poet, governor, and boon companion for several ʿAbbasid caliphs, and most important member of the ʿEǰlī dynasty of western Iran, flourished in the early 3rd/9th century. Though genealogists disagree over his exact pedigree, he was a…

ABŪ ESḤĀQ AL-ŠĪRĀZĪ, EBRĀHĪM B. ʿALĪ B. YŪSOF B. ʿABDALLĀH AL-FĪRŪZĀBĀDĪ, Shafeʿite jurist, b. 393/1003 (395 and 396 are also mentioned) in Fīrūzābād in Fārs. He began studying Shafeʿite law in his hometown under Moḥammad b. ʿOmar Šīrāzī. Leaving Fīrūzābād, he studied with ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥosayn Ḡondeǰānī in Ḡondeǰān and…

ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM B. ALPTIGIN (named in some sources, e.g., Ebn Bābā, as Esḥāq b. Alptigin), governor of Ḡazna in eastern Afghanistan on behalf of the Samanids, Šaʿbān, 352 to Ḏu’l-qaʿda, 355/September, 963 to November, 966. Abū Esḥāq Ebrāhīm’s father Alptigin had been commander-in-chief of the Samanid army in Bokhara;…

ABŪ ESḤĀQ ĪNJŪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN SHAH SHAIKH ABŪ ESḤĀQ B. MAḤMŪD SHAH ĪNJŪ (721-58/1321-59), ruler of Fārs, ʿErāq ʿAǰam (Isfahan), and parts of southern Iran, 743-55/1343-54. Abū Esḥāq was the youngest of four sons of Šaraf-al-dīn Maḥmūd Shah b. Moḥammad Īnǰū, governor of Fārs under the last Mongol Il-khan, Sultan Abū…

ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM B. ŠAHRĪĀR KĀZARŪNĪ, Sufi and eponymous founder of the Kāzarūnīya/Esḥāqīya selsela. Abū Esḥāq was born in 352/963 in Kāzarūn, the environs of which were still only thinly islamized as late as the mid-4th/10th century. Though the future shaikh’s parents were converted to Islam, his paternal grandfather remained…

ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM B. SAYYĀR B. HĀNEʾ AL-NAẒẒĀM (ca. 165-221/782-836), famous adīb and Muʿtazilite theologian. He was of lowly birth; one of his ancestors had been a slave. He was by the most reliable accounts (e.g., Ebn Ḥazm, Ketāb al-feṣal fi’l-melal wa’l-ahwāʾ wa’l-neḥal, Cairo, 1317/1899-1900, IV, p. 193.13f.) a mawlā…

ABŪ ESḤĀQ ŠĀMĪ, ḴᵛĀJA, founder and eminent early saint of the Češtī selsela (3rd-4th/9th-10th century). He was a spiritual disciple of Shaikh Mamšād ʿOlū Dīnavarī in Baghdad, where he had migrated from Syria in search of a Sufi master. After seven years with his shaikh, he was directed to proceed…

ABŪ ḤAFṢ ʿAMR B. SALMA ḤADDĀD, an ascetic who was born and lived in Nīšāpūr, d. between 265/874 and 270/879. Biographers differ on the name of his father, variously calling him Sālem, Maslama, or Salma. The oldest references to him date from the second half of the 4th/10th century. Abū…

ABŪ ḤAFṢ SOḠDĪ, one of the so-called “first poets” in New Persian. The concept of “first poet,” however, is simplistic; since poetry, like any stage of a language, evolves continuously and is rooted in its immediate past. The idea of “first poet” may have evolved from the lack of distinction…

ABŪ ḤĀMED ṢADR-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD TORKA, scholar and author of the late 7th/13th and early 8th/14th centuries, the first in a line of prominent men of the Torka-ye Eṣfahānī family. The family name refers to Abū Ḥāmed’s grandfather, described as a Turk who moved from Ḵoǰand to Isfahan. Abū Ḥāmed corresponded…

ABŪ ḤAMZA ḴORĀSĀNĪ, d. 290/903, Sufi born and active in Nīšāpūr; according to ʿAṭṭār he died there (Taḏkera II, p. 97.6; Solamī, Ṭabaqāt, p. 326.3; Żabbī, Tārīḵ-e Nayšābūr, p. 150; Anṣārī, Ṭabaqāt, p. 123.8). He received his Sufi training from Abū Torāb Naḵšabī (d. 245/859), with whom he traveled extensively…