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AŠRAF GĪLĀNĪ (اشرف گیلانی), SAYYED AŠRAF-AL-DĪN ḤOSAYNĪ QAZVĪNĪ, poet and leading journalist of the Constitutional era. Born in Qazvīn in 1287/1870, he lost his father, Sayyed Aḥmad Ḥosaynī, when he was only six months old. His childhood was spent in poverty and in his early youth he spent some time…

AŠraf ḠILZAY, the Afghan chief who ruled as Shah over part of Iran from 1137/1725 to 1142/1729. The eldest son of ʿAbd-al-ʿAzīz and a nephew of Mīr Ways (q.v.), belonged to the leading line of the Hōtak (q.v.) tribe which together with Tōḵī (q.v.) tribe, dominated the Paṧtūn confederacy of…

AŠRAF-ʿALĪ KHAN FOḠĀN (or FEḠĀN), poet writing in Persian and Urdu (1140-86/1727-72); he was the son of Mīrzā-ʿAlī Khan Nokta and the foster-brother (kōka) of the emperor Aḥmad Shah of Delhi (r. 1161-67/1748-54). He was born in Delhi and lived there till Aḥmad Shah was dethroned in 1167/1754, when he…

AŠRAFĪ, term used from the mid-15th century for a gold coin first minted in Mamluk Egypt in 810/1407-08; the name probably refers to the Mamluk sultan Ašraf Barsbay (r. 825-41/1422-38). The original coin weighed about 3.45 gm and corresponded in standard and fineness to the Venetian ducat (zecchino) or Florentine…

AŠRAFĪ, ḤOJJAT-AL-ESLĀM ḤĀJJĪ MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD B. MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD MAHDĪ, religious leader, born sometime before 1235/1819 and died 1315/1897-98. The only information about him comes from fragmentary accounts given by some of his contemporaries such as Moḥammad Tonokābonī (Qeṣaṣ al-ʿolamāʾ, Tehran, 1304/1886-87, pp. 118ff.), and Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Eʿtemād-al-salṭana (al-Maʾāṯer wa’l-āṯār,…

ASRĀR AL-ḤEKAM FI’L-MOFTATAḤ WA’L-MOḴTATAM, the title of a book written for Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah Qāǰār, by the philosopher Ḥāǰǰ Mollā Hādī Sabzavārī (1212-89/1797-1872). The Shah, passing through Sabzavār on the way to Khorasan, summoned Mollā Hādī and asked him to write a book in Persian about man’s origin and destination (mabdaʾ…

ASRĀR AL-TAWḤĪD FĪ MAQĀMĀT AL-ŠAYḴ ABĪ SAʿĪD, principal source for the life and teachings of the well-known mystic of Khorasan, Abū Saʿid b. Abi’l-Ḵayr (b. 357/967, d. 440/1049; q.v.). The book was composed by his great-great-grandson, commonly known as Ebn Monawwar; his full name is given, in slightly differing forms,…

ĀSRĒŠTĀR, in Middle Persian Manichean texts a kind of demons, often associated with the mazans. As a class they do not distinguish themselves, but two of their members play a crucial part in Manichean cosmogony as the creators of mankind, incorporating both the roles of creator demons (in this function…

ĀSRŌN, Middle Persian form of Avestan āθravan. The form āsrōn continues Av. āθrauuanəm (acc. sing.) whereas the also attested form āsrō (Pahlavi Videvdād and Vispred, Pazand āsrū) is most likely to continue āθrauua (nom. sing.), cf. Pazand āšo for Av. ašauua (Pahl. ahlaw). In Middle Persian texts āsrōn designates a…

ASSARHADDON (Aššur-aḫa-iddin, English usually Esarhaddon), king of Assyria 680-69 B.C., son of Sennacherib and the Arameo-Babylonian princess Zakūtu (or Naqīʾa) and the father of Aššurbanipal. He became king after two of his brothers had killed Sennacherib at Nineveh, which plunged the empire into civil war and anarchy.   . (See…

Search terms:  اساسین حشاشین asasin asaaseen asaasin        

AŠŠURBANIPAL (Aššur-bāni-apal, lit. “Aššur has given a son-heir”), son of Assarhaddon, king of Assyria 666-25 B.C., known as Sardanapal by the classical authors. He was the last great monarch of Assyria and during his reign the empire reached the summit of its power, though at the same time exhibiting clear…

ASSYRIA i. The Kingdom of Assyria and its relations with Iran. ii. Achaemenid Aθurā. iii. Parthian Assur.  

ASSYRIA i. The Kingdom of Assyria and its Relations with Iran Sources. Assyrian sources of the second millennium B.C. contain little information on Iran, but texts belonging to the 9th-7th centuries B.C. provide valuable data on the expeditions of Assyrian kings to Iranian territory. These texts are of several types:…

ASSYRIA ii. Achaemenid Aθurā Old Persian Aθurā “Assyria” goes back to Akkadian Aššur, the name of the city of Aššur and of the original Assyrian territory on the middle course of the Tigris (cf. Aramaic ʾtwr, Greek Assyria). It is mentioned in the Achaemenid inscriptions among the countries forming part…