A version of this article is available in print Volume XVI, Fascicle 6, pp. 591-672 KHORASAN, a historical region with…

title given to various dynastic rulers of Ḵᵛārazm (see CHORASMIA). KHWARAZMSHAH i. AFRIGHIDS See ĀL-E AFRIḠ. KHWARAZMSHAH ii. MAʾMUNIDS See…

i. Historical Geography and History to the Beginning of the 20th Century Nishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat,…

KERMAN v. HISTORY FROM THE ISLAMIC CONQUEST TO THE COMING OF THE MONGOLS The Armenian geography written in the second half…

LANBASAR (the form in Rašid-al-Din and Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi; popular pronunciation, and the form used by Jovayni, Lam(m)asar), an important fortress…

LE STRANGE, GUY (b. Hunstanton, Norfolk, 24 July 1854; d. Cambridge, 24 December 1933), scholar in Persian, Arabic, and Spanish,…

NEHĀVAND, a town in western Iran, situated in the northern Zagros region (lat 34˚11′ N, long 48˚22′ E, elev. 1,786…

KERMAN v. From the Islamic Conquest to the Coming of the Mongols The Armenian geography written in the second half…

ŠAKKI, a district of eastern Transcaucasia, now within the northwesternmost part of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, where the modern…

MOSAFERIDS (also Sallarids or Kangarids; this last form is more probable than that of Langarids; see Kasravi, pp. 36-37), a…

NAḴJAVĀN, present-day Nakhchivan (lat 39°12′ N, long 45°24′ E), the administrative center of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) with its…

ḴOSROW MALEK b. Ḵosrowšāh, ABU’L-MOŻAFFAR (r. ca. 555-82/1160-86), the last sultan of the Ghaznavid dynasty, in northwestern India, essentially in…

MAḤMUD B. SEBÜKTEGIN, YAMIN-AL-DAWLA ABU’L-QĀSEM, the first fully independent ruler of the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty (see GHAZNAVIDS), who reigned (388-421/998-1030)…

MASʿUD (III) B. EBRĀHIM, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DAWLA WA’L-DIN ABU SAʿD, Ghaznavid sultan (r. 492-508/1099-1115), recorded on his coins with various other honorifics…

SEBÜKTEGIN, ABU MANṢUR NĀṢER-AL-DIN Wa’l-DAWLA, a slave commander of the Samanids (q.v.) and the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty in eastern…

MAWDUD B. MASʿUD B. MAḤMUD, ABU’L-FATḤ, sultan of the Ghaznavid dynasty (r. 432-41/1041-49), recorded on his coins with the honorifics…

LAKHMIDS, an Arab dynasty that ruled in central Iraq with their capital at Ḥira for roughly three centuries, from about 300…

ḴOSROWŠĀH B. BAHRĀMŠĀH, with honorifics variously recorded as Moʿezz-al-Dawla, Neẓām-al-Dawla, Moʾayyed-al-Dawla wa’l-Din, and Tāj-al-Dawla, penultimate ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty…

NISHAPUR i. Historical Geography and History to the Beginning of the 20th Century Nishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and…

FAŻL, b. SAHL b. Zādānfarrūḵ (d. 202/818), high official of the early ʿAbbasids and vizier to the caliph al-Maʾmūn (r….

FATḤ-NĀMA, Arabic-Persian term used to denote proclamations and letters announcing victories in battle or the successful conclusion of military campaigns….

FARROḴZĀD, ABŪ ŠOJĀʿ, b. Masʿūd b. Maḥmūd, Ghaznavid sultan of Afghanistan and northern India (443-52/1052-59). He succeeded in Ḡazna after…

FARḠĀNA, valley of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) river extending ca. 300 km between the Farḡāna mountains in the east and…

FĀRES (plurs. forsān, fawāres), the Arabic term for “rider on a horse, cavalryman,” connected with the verb farasa/farosa “to be…

FARĀVA (Parau), a small medieval town in eastern Persia, lying east of the Caspian Sea and just beyond the northern…

FĀRĀB (Pārāb, Bārāb; Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, ed. Sotūda, p. 117, tr. Minorsky, p. 118; Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 346, tr. pp. 307, 360;…

FAḴR-AL-MOLK b. Neẓām al-Molk, ABU’L-FATḤ MOẒAFFAR (b. 434/1043; d. 500/1106-7), eldest son of the great Saljuq vizier and himself vizier…

FĀʾEQ ḴĀṢṢA, ABU’L-ḤASAN (d. Khorasan 389/999), Turkish eunuch and slave commander of the Samanid army in Transoxania and Khorasan during…

ESMĀʿĪL, b. Aḥmad b. Asad SĀMĀNĪ, ABŪ EBRĀHĪM (b. 234/849, d. Ṣafar 295/November 907), the first member of the Samanid…

ESMĀʿĪL, b. Seboktegīn, Ghaznavid prince and briefly amir in Ḡazna in 387-88/997-98. Esmāʿīl was one of Seboktegīn’s younger sons by…

EŠKĀŠ(E)M (called Sekāšem, Sekīmešt, and Eskīmešt by early geographers), a settlement in medieval Badaḵšān in northeastern Afghanistan (q.v.), now in…

ESFARĀYEN, ESFARĀʾĪN (Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, pp. 64, 102, has “*Siparāyin” [Sabarāyen], possibly influenced by a popular etymology given, e.g….

ʿERĀQ-EʿAJAM(Ī) “Persian Iraq,” the name given in medieval times to the largely mountainous, western portion of modern Persia. The geographers…

EQLĪD, a small town of medieval Fārs, now in the modern rural subdistrict of the same name (lat. 30° 54’…

SAFFARIDS, a dynasty of medieval Islamic eastern Iran which ruled from 247/861 to 393/1003.  From a base in their home…

ʿEMĀD-AL-DĪNMARZBĀN, ABŪ KĀLĪJĀR b. Solṭān-al-Dawla Abū Šojāʿ (399-440/1009-48), amir of the Buyid dynasty in the period of that family’s decadence…

ELWELL-SUTTON, LAURENCE PAUL (b. Ballylickey, Cork County, Ireland, 2 June 1912-d. Edinburgh, 2 September 1984), scholar of Islamic and modern…

EMĀD-AL-DAWLA, ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ b. Būya b. Fanā-Ḵosrow, the eldest of three brothers who came to power in western Persia as…

EBRĀHĪM ĪNĀL (or Yenāl; d. 451/1059), early Saljuq leader. The name Īnāl/Yenāl comes originally from an old Turkish title already…

EBRĀHĪM B. MASʿŪD (I) b. Maḥmūd b. Sebüktegīn, Abu’l-Moẓaffar, Ẓahīr-al-Dawla, Rażī-al-Dīn, etc., Ghaznavid sultan (r. 451-92/1059-99). Ebrāhīm succeeded his brother…

EBN ROSTA, ABŪ ʿALĪ AḤMAD b. ʿOmar (d. after 290/903), Persian author of a geographical compendium. He was from Isfahan,…

EBN MORSAL, LAYṮ b. Fażl, a client (mawlā) and governor of Sīstān 199-204/815-19. Previously governor of Egypt in 182-87/798-803 (Kendī,…

EBN MARDAWAYH (Mardūya), AHMAD b. Mūsā b. Mardawayh b. Fūrak Eṣfahānī, scholar of Isfahan in the Buyid period (323-410/935-1019), who…

EBN ḴORDĀḎBEH (or Ḵorradāḏbeh), ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH b. ʿAbd-Allāh (fl. 3rd/9th century), author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative…

EBN ḴARMĪL, military commander of the Ghurids, and connected, according to Jūzjānī, with the district of Gorzevān on the headwaters…

EBN FŪLĀD (or Ebn Pūlād), military adventurer, probably of Daylamī origin, active in northern Persia during the Buyid period (early…

EBN DĀROST, TĀJ-AL-MOLK ABU’L-ḠANĀʾEM MARZBĀN b. Ḵosrow-Fīrūz Šīrāzī (438-86/1046-93), last vizier of the Great Saljuq Sultan Malekšāh (r. 465-85/1072-92). Born…

EBN DĀROST, MAJD-AL-WOZARĀʾ MOḤAMMAD b. Manṣūr (d. Ahvā, 467/1074), vizier to the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Qāʾem from 15 Rabīʿ II 453/9…

EBN AL-BALḴĪ, conventional name for an otherwise unknown author of Fārs-nāma, a local history and geography of the province of…

EBN BĀBĀ KĀŠĀNĪ (Qāšānī), ABU’L-ʿABBĀS (d. Marv, 510/1116-17), Persian writer and boon-companion (nadīm), whose manual for courtiers preserves otherwise lost…

EBN ABĪ ṬĀHER ṬAYFŪR, ABU’L-FAŻL AḤMAD (204-80/819-93), littérateur (adīb) and historian of Baghdad, of a Khorasani family. His extensive adab works…

DĪNĀR, MALEK b. Moḥammad (d. 591/1195), a leader of the Oghuz Turkmen in Khorasan and, in the latter years of…

DĪNAVAR (occasionally vocalized Daynavar), in the first centuries of Islam an important town in Jebāl, now ruined. Its site lies…

DERHAM B. NAŻR (or Naṣr or Ḥosayn), commander of ʿayyārs or moṭawweʿa, orthodox Sunni vigilantes against the Kharijites in Sīstān…

DEHESTĀN (in modern Persian administrative usage a rural district consisting of a number of villages), the name of a region…

DEHESTĀNĪ , AʿAZZ-AL-MOLKNEẒĀM-AL-DĪN ABU’L-MAḤĀSEN ʿABD-AL-JALĪL b. ʿAlī, twice vizier to the Saljuq sultan Barkīāroq (487-98/1094-1105). In Rabīʿ I 493/January-February 1100,…

DAYRAL-ʿĀQŪL (lit., “the monastery at the bend in the river”; cf. Syriac ʿaqûlā “bend”; Payne Smith, II, cols. 2963-65), a…

DAYSAM b. Ebrāhīm KORDĪ, ABŪ SĀLEM, Kurdish commander who ruled sporadically in Azerbaijan between 326/938 and 344/955 after the period of…

DAWRAQ (or Dawraq al-Fors), name of a district (kūra; Moqaddasī, pp. 406-07), also known as Sorraq, and of a town…

DAWĀ(T)DĀR (lit., “keeper, bearer of [the royal] inkwell or inkstand”), title of various officials in medieval Islamic states. At an…

DARGAZĪNĪ, nesba (attributive name) for Dargazīn (or Darjazīn), borne by several viziers of the Great Saljuqs in the 12th century….

DANDĀNQĀN, a small town of medieval Khorasan, in the Qara Qum, or sandy desert, between Marv and Saraḵs, 10 farsaḵs…

CODES (romūz, sg. ramz), including the use of secret writing and cryptanalysis, in Persia. The use of codes in communications…

CEŠT, a small settlement on the north bank of the Harirud and to the south of the Paropamisus range in…

ČĀŠNĪGĪR, literally “taster” (Pers. čāšnī “taste”), the official who at the court of Turkish dynasties in Iran and elsewhere, from…

CAPITAL CITIES i. In Pre-Islamic times. ii. In Islamic times.   i. In Pre-Islamic Times Iranians most probably first coalesced…

ČAḠRĪ BEG DĀWŪD b. Mīḵāʾīl b. Saljūq, Abū Solaymān (b. in the 380s/990s, d. 452/1060), a member of the Saljuqs,…

ČAḠĀNĪĀN (Middle Pers. form Čagīnīgān, Arabic rendering Ṣaḡānīān, with the common rendering of Iranian č as ṣ; Marquart’s speculation [1938,…

ČAḠĀNRŪD (Čaḡānīrūd in Farroḵī, the seventh and last right-bank tributary of the Oxus or Amu Darya, rising in what in…

ČĀČ (Ar. Šāš), the name of a district and of a town in medieval Transoxania; the name of the town…

BŪ ḤALĪM (or Bāhalīm) ŠAYBĀNĪ, a family of military commanders and governors in northern India under the later Ghaznavid sultans…

BÖRI, or Böritigin (Turkish böri “wolf” plus tigin “prince”; cf. G. Clauson, Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, Oxford, 1972,…

BOJNŪRD, a town and district in Khorasan. i. The town and district. ii. History. iii. Basic population data, 1956-2011.  …

BOḠRĀ KHAN, ABŪ MŪSĀ HĀRŪN or Ḥasan b. Solaymān, called Šehāb-al-Dawla and Ẓahīr-al-­Daʿwa, the first Qarakhanid khan to invade the…

BĪSOTŪN, ẒAHĪR-AL-DAWLA ABŪ MANṢŪR b. Vošmgīr, the Ziyarid amir in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān (r. 357-67/967-78, not 356-66 as in Zambaur,…

BIRD, ISABELLA L., also known under her married surname of Bishop (1831-1904), British traveler in western Iran and Kurdistan during…

BILGETIGIN (Turkish bilge “wise man, counselor,” an element found in the onomastic of the Orkhon inscriptions, e.g., Bilge Kaḡan, plus…

BĪĀR (from Arabic beʾār, plur. of beʾr “well, spring”), a small settlement of medieval Islamic times on the northern fringe…

BEGTOḠDÏ (Turkish, lit. “a prince has been born, has arisen,” Persian Baktoḡdī), Turkish slave com­mander of the Ghaznavid sultans Maḥmūd…

BEGTUZUN, Pers. Baktūzūn (tuzun being from the Orkhon Turkish tōḏun, a title of high military rank in the Gök Turkish…

BEGGING, Pers. gadāʾī, takaddī (Ar. also kodya, takdīa), soʾāl. i. In the early centuries of the Islamic period. ii. In…

ZIYARIDS (Āl-e Ziār), a minor Islamic dynasty of the Caspian coastlands (931-ca. 1090).  They ruled first in northern Iran, and…

BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN i. Life Bīrūnī was born in the outer suburb (bīrūn, hence his nesba) of Kāṯ, the capital…

MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR (lit. “what lies beyond the river”), the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana.  It was defined by…

JOWZJĀN, the Arabicized form of the Persian Gowz-gān(ān), a district of what was in early Islamic times eastern Khorasan, now…

JOVAYN, name of three locales. 1. Jovayn or Jovaym in Fars. A village in the district (kura) of Ardašir Ḵorra…

JEBĀL, in Arabic, the plural of jabal “mountain,” a geographical term used in early Islamic times for the western part…

JAND, a medieval Islamic town on the right bank of the lower Jaxartes in Central Asia some 350 km from…

JALĀL-AL-DIN ḴᵛĀRAZMŠĀH (I) MENGÜBIRNI, the last Ḵᵛārazmšāh of the line of Anuštigin Ḡarčaʾi, reigned in 1220-31 as the eldest son…

JABḠUYA, Arabo-Persian form of the Central Asian title yabḡu. This article will be divided into two sections. i. Origin and…

IRAN, JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF PERSIAN STUDIES. The British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) was inaugurated in December…

INDIA v. POLITICAL AND CULTURAL RELATIONS: MEDIEVAL PERIOD TO THE 13TH CENTURY The first political and military footholds of the…

ÏNĀNČ ḴĀTUN (Inānj Ḵātun), wife of the Atābeg Noṣrat-al-Din Jahān-Pahlavān Moḥammad b. Šams-al-Din Eldigüz (r. 571-82/1175-86), the Eldigüzid or Ildegizid…

IL-ARSLĀN, ABU’L-FATḤ, Chorasmian king of the line of Anuštegin Ḡarčaʾi (r. 1156-72). He was the son and successor of ʿAlāʾ-Din…

ḤODUD AL-ʿĀLAM, a concise but very important Persian geography of the then known world, Islamic and non-Islamic, begun in 372/982-83…

ḤIRA, a city on the desert fringes of southwestern Mesopotamia; known in pre-Islamic times as the capital of the Lakhmid…

HENDUŠĀH B. SANJAR B. ʿABD-ALLAH SAḤEBI KIRANI, the little-known author of a Persian history called the Tajāreb al-salaf (fl. first…

HELMAND RIVER iii. IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD The early Islamic geographers refer variously to the Helmand River as Hendmand (Eṣṭaḵri,…

HAZĀRASPIDS, a local dynasty of Kurdish origin which ruled in the Zagros mountains region of southwestern Persia, essentially in Lorestān…

HĀRUN AL-RAŠID, HĀRUN B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿABD-ALLĀH (d. Ṭus, 3 Jomādā II 193/24 March 809), the fifth caliph of the…

ḤAMZA B. ĀḎARAK or Atrak or ʿAbd-Allāh Abu Ḵozayma, Kharijite rebel in Sistān and Khorasan during early ʿAbbasid times. He…

ḤĀJEB, an administrative and then military office in the pre-modern Iranian world. i. In the Medieval Islamic Period. ii. In…

ḤĀJEB i. IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PERIOD The office of ḥājeb, implying military command, appears in the Iranian world with…

ḠUR, a region of central Afghanistan, essentially the modern administrative province (welāyat) of Ḡōrāt. Pre-modern Ḡur comprised the basins of…

ḠOZZ, a significant Turkic tribe in western Eurasia in the 5th century. i. Origins. ii. Tribe.   i. ORIGINS Ḡozz…

GOWHAR-ĀʾĪN, Saʿd-al-dawla, Turkish eunuch slave commander of the Great Saljuqs (d. 493/1100). In his early life he had been a…

GOWHAR ḴĀTUN, a Saljuq princess who became the second wife of the Ghaznavid Sultan Masʿud III (r. 492-508/1099-1115). Because the…

GORZEVĀN (thus in the Ḥodud al-ʿālam; Yaʿqubi, Qorzomān; Ebn Ḥawqal and Yāqut, Jorzovān; Moqaddasi, Jorzovān and Korzovān), a town in…

GORGĀN vi. History From The Rise Of Islam To The Beginning Of The Safavid Period Gorgān, OP Varkāna-, classical Hyrcania,…

GIBB MEMORIAL SERIES (GMS), a series of publications, which has continued for almost a century, mainly, but not exclusively, dedicated…

GHURIDS (or Āl-e Šansab), a medieval Islamic dynasty of the eastern Iranian lands. They began as local chiefs in Ḡūr…

GHAZNAVIDS, an Islamic dynasty of Turkish slave origin (366-582/977-1186), which in its heyday ruled in the eastern Iranian lands, briefly…

GARDĪZĪ, ABŪ SAʿĪD ʿABD-al-ḤAYY b. Żaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd, Persian historian of the early 5th/11th century whose exact dates of birth…

ḠARČESTĀN, name of a region in early Islamic times, situated to the north of the upper Harīrūd and the Paropamisus…

GANJA (Ar. Janza), the Islamic name of a town in the early medieval Islamic province of Arrān (the classical Caucasian…

FŪŠANJ (arabicizedform Būšanj; Mid. Pers. Pūšang [Markwart, Provincial Capitals, p. 11], also reflected in the Būšang of the Ḥodūd al-ʿālam,…

OSRUŠANA, a district of medieval Islamic Transoxania lying to the east of Samarqand on the upper reaches of the Zarafšān river…

MAʾMUN, Abu’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd-Allāh (b. 786; d. near Tarsus in July-August 833), the seventh Abbasid caliph (r. 813-33; see ʿABBASID CALIPHATE),…

KONDORI, Moḥammad b. Manṣur, ʿAmid al-Molk Abu Naṣr (b. ca. 1024; d. 29 November 1064), vizier to Ṭoḡrel Beg (r….

KHARIJITES IN PERSIA The Kharijite sect of early Islam arose out of the conflict between ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (r….

ḴOJESTĀNI, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd-Allāh, Abu Šojāʿ (d. 882) commander of the Taherids in Khorasan, and after the Ṣaffarid occupation of…

TERKEN (or TORKĀN) ḴĀTUN, the title of the wife of the Khwarazmshah Tekiš b. Il-Arslān (r. 1172-1200) and mother of…

TEKIŠ B. IL ARSLĀN, ʿAlāʾ-al-Donyā wa’l-Din Abu’l-Moẓaffar (r. 1172-1200; for his full name, see Ebn al-Aṯir XI, p. 377; for…

ḴĀTUN, a title of high-born women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds. Although the title is first attested in…

KĀNOM (khanom, khanum), a title for highborn women in the pre-modern Turkish and Persian worlds. In early Islamic Turkish, it…

ḴĀṢṢ BEG ARSLĀN B. PALANG-ERI, Turkish ḡolām who became the ḥājeb “chamberlain” and court favorite of the Great Saljuq Sultan Masʿud…

KĀKUYIDS [KAKWAYHIDS], a dynasty of Deylamite origin that ruled in western Persia, in Jebāl and Kurdistan about 1008-51 as independent princes,…

YAʿQUB b. LAYṮ b. MOʿADDAL (r. 247-65/861-79), founder of what may be distinguished as the Laythids, or the “first line”…

OŠNUYA, OŠNU, OŠNOH (now OŠNAVIYA), a small town of southwestern Azerbaijan. It lies near the southwestern corner of Lake Urmia…

OSTOVĀ (also A/Āstovā; Ostov), a rural district (rostāq) of northern Khorasan, considered in medieval Islamic times to be an administrative…

ORDUBĀD, a town on the north bank of the middle course of the Araxes (Aras) river of eastern Transcaucasia, former…

ONṢOR AL-MAʿĀLI, KAY KĀVUS b. Eskandar b. Qābus, penultimate prince of the Ziyarid dynasty of Tabaristan (Ṭabarestān) and Gilān, in…

NUḤ (II) B. MANṢUR (I), ABU’L-QĀSEM, Samanid Amir (r. 365-87/976-97), initially in both Transoxania and Khorasan, latterly in Transoxania only,…

OBOLLA, a port of Lower Iraq during the classical and medieval Islamic periods. It lay in the delta region of…

NAṢR (I) B. AḤMAD (I) B. ESMĀʿIL, Amir-e Saʿid “The Fortunate Amir,” a title he was given after his death,…

MOḤAMMAD b. ʿABD-ALLAH b. ṬĀHER, Abu’l -ʿAbbās (b. 209/824-25, d. 253/ 867), high official in Iraq and the central lands…

MESKAWAYH, ABU ʿALI AḤMAD b. Moḥammad [Ebn], Persian chancery official and treasury clerk of the Buyid period, boon companion, litterateur…

MANṢURB. NUḤ, the name of two of the later Amirs of the Samanids (q.v.), the first ruling in both Transoxiana…