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AŠʿARĪYA (or Ashʿarism), an Islamic school of theological thought founded by Abu’l-Ḥasan Ašʿarī. In accord with the division of disciplines taught in the madrasas, the bio-bibliographers of Islam are wont in kalām to characterize an impressive number of scholars as Ashʿarites, just as in feqh they specify scholars’ adherence to…

ATĀBAK, Turkish atabeg, lit. “father-chief,” a Turkish title of rank which first appears, at least under this name, with the early Saljuqs. An atābak was a notable to whom a ruler assigned the tutoring of one of his young sons; the tutor tended to eventually marry the boy’s mother. Save…

ATĀBAK-E AʿẒAM, MĪRZĀ ʿALĪ-AṢḠAR KHAN AMĪN-AL-SOLṬĀN, grand vizier under the last three Qajar kings. The Qajar title Atābak-e Aʿẓam, reminiscent of Saljuq titulatures, was conferred on two prominent statesmen: Mīrzā Taqī Khan Amīr(-e) Neẓām Amīr(-e) Kabīr (q.v.) and Mīrzā ʿAlī-Aṣḡar Khan Amīn-al-solṭān. It was also conferred upon the unpopular Solṭān…

ATĀBAKĀN-E ĀḎARBĀYJĀN, an influential family of military slave origin, also called Ildegozids, ruled parts of Arrān and Azerbaijan from about 530/1135-36 to 622/1225; as “Great Atābaks” (atābakān-e aʿẓam) of the Saljuq sultans of Persian Iraq (western Iran), they effectively controlled the sultans from 555/1160 to 587/1181; in their third phase…

ATĀBAKĀN-E FĀRS, princes of the Salghurid dynasty who ruled Fārs in the 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries, initially with the status of atābak. They were descended from the chief of a Turkmen clan, the Salḡūr or Salūr, who had accompanied the Saljuq sultan Ṭoḡril on the migration into Khorasan in the…

ATĀBAKĀN-E LORESTĀN, rulers of Lorestān, part of the Zagros highlands of southwestern Iran in the later middle ages. Lorestān had a mixed population of Lors (q.v.), Kurds, and others. There were two dynasties, the atābaks of Great Lorestān (Lor-e Bozorg) and those of Little Lorestān (Lor-e Kūček). Only an outline…

ATĀBAKĀN-E MARĀḠA (also called Aḥmadīlīs), a family of local rulers of Marāḡa who ruled from the early 6th/12th century until 605/1208-09 in Marāḡa itself and in Rūʾīn Dez for some years after the Mongol conquest. They are often referred to as the Aḥmadīlī Dynasty because of a connection with Aḥmadīl…

ATĀBAKĀN-E YAZD, a dynasty which governed Yazd in the 6th/12th century. Most of them were tributaries to the Saljuqs and Il-khans, and linked by marriage to the last Kakuyids of Yazd. The dynasty originated with the appointment by the Saljuq sultan Arslān b. Ṭoḡrel (556/1116-571/1176) of Rokn-al-dīn Sām b. Langar, a…

ATABAKI, PARVIZ (Parviz Atābaki, b. Mašhad, 28 February 1928; d. Tehran, 15 March 2004), diplomat, literary scholar, translator, and editor. LIFE Parviz Atabaki was the son of Ḥeydar-Qoli Atabaki, a civil servant, who was related to Mirza ʿAli-Aṣḡar Khan Atābak-e Aʿẓam, Amin-al solṭān, grand vizier under the Qajar kings. Atabaki…

ATABAY, CYRUS (Cyrus Ātābāy, b. Saʿdābād, Tehran, 15 Šahrivar 1308Š./6 September 1929; d. Munich, 6 Bahman 1374Š./26 January 1996; FIGURE 1), poet and translator. LIFE Cyrus was born to Princess Hamdam-al-Ṣalṭana, who was Reza Shah Pahlavi’s firstborn (from his first wife), and Hādi Atabay. He was sent by his father…

AL-ĀṮĀR AL-BĀQĪA ʿAN AL-QORŪN AL-ḴĀLĪA (The Chronology of Ancient Nations), a historical work by Bīrūnī, composed at the age of twenty-seven, in A.D. 1000 (he calls the year 1311 of Alexander “this year of ours,” ed. Sachau, p. 194). The book is one of the works that first gave him…

ĀṮĀR AL-BELĀD, the title of a geographical work composed in Arabic during the 7th/13th century by the Persian scholar Abū Yaḥyā Zakarīyāʾ b. Moḥammad Qazvīnī (ca. 600-82/1203-83, q.v.). Qazvīnī’s fame rests on two major works of his, both written in Arabic (in fact, a rather indifferent Arabic, indicating that it…

ĀṮĀR AL-WOZARĀʾ, a biographical work on ministers and other officials, their policies and literary works, by Sayf al-dīn Ḥāǰǰī b. Neẓām ʿAqīlī, written at Herat between 875/1470-71 and 892/1486-87. ʿAqīlī indicates in his preface that he had been employed in the administration under the Timurid noble and patron, Ḵᵛāǰa Qewām-al-dīn…

ĀṮĀR-E ʿAJAM, a study by Sayyed Mīrzā Moḥammad-Naṣīr Forṣat-al-dawla Šīrāzī, 1271-1339/1854-1920 (q.v.) of the geographical features and historical monuments of Fārs (Storey, I/1, p. 353, I/2, p. 1295) with notices on various rulers, scholars, poets, mystics, artists, and other notables of Fārs, as well as information on the history of…

ĀTAŠ (Book Pahlavi and New Persian) “fire,” Book Pahlavi also ātaxš, both from the Avestan nominative singular ātarš; the regular Middle Persian and Parthian form is ādur (also Book Pahlavi), whence New Persian āḏar. The etymology of Avestan ātar- is unknown. For examples of usage see S. Wikander, Feuerpriester in…