BARNĀMA-RĪZĪ “planning.” Among the countries of the Middle East Iran has a relatively long history of economic development planning. By…

ANJOMAN-E ESMĀʿĪLĪ (Ismaʿili Society), a research institution founded on 16 February 1946 in Bombay, India, under the patronage of the…

ANJEDĀN, village located 37 km east of Arāk (former Solṭānābād) in Markazī province. A relatively large and prosperous market in…

BADAḴŠĀNI, Sayyed SOHRĀB WALI (سید سهراب ولی بدخشانی, fl. 9th/15th cent.), the most prominent Central Asian Nezāri Ismaʿili theologian and…

STERN, SAMUEL MIKLOS (b. Tab, 22 November 1920; d. Oxford, 29 October 1969), Hungarian-British orientalist and a leading scholar of…

OMM AL-KETĀB, title of an anonymous Persian book associated with certain early Shiʿite ḡolāt (extremist) groups of southern Iraq.  The…

MOḤAMMAD B. BOZORG-OMID, the third lord of Alamut (r. 532-57/1138-62).  He succeeded to the leadership of the Nezāri Ismaʿili state…

ŠĀH ṬĀHER ḤOSAYNI DAKKANI (b. Ḵvānd, ca. 880-90s/1480-90s; d. Ahmadnagar, 956/1549), thirty-first and the most famous imam of the Moḥammadšāhi…

ŠEHĀB-AL-DIN ŠĀH ḤOSAYNI, a Nezāri Ismaʿili high dignitary (pir) and author (b. Iraq, or probably Maḥallāt, ca. 1268/1851; d. Poona,…

ŠĀH ḴALIL-ALLĀH, also known as Šāh Ḵalil-Allāh Maḥallāti, the forty-fifth imam of the Qāsemšāhi branch of Nezāri Ismaʿilis. He was…

ŠAMS-AL-DIN MOḤAMMAD, Nezāri Ismaʿili imam (b. Rudbār, in the late 640s/1240s; d. Azarbaijan, ca. 710/1310-11).  He was the sole surviving…

QOHESTĀNI, ABU ESḤĀQ Ebrāhim, one of the most prominent Nezāri Ismaʿili dāʿis and authors of the early Anjedān period in…

ḴORŠĀH, ROKN-AL-DIN (b. Rudbār, ca. 627/1230; k. in Mongolia, 655/1257), Nezāri Ismaʿili imam and the last lord of Alamut. Rokn-al-Din,…

NEZĀR B. AL-MOSTANṢER, ABU MANṢUR (b. Cairo, 10 Rabiʿ I 437/26 September 1045; d. Cairo, 488/1095), Fatimid crown prince and…

SARGOḎAŠTE-E SAYYEDNĀ (The life-story of our master), title of an anonymous Persian work containing the biography of Ḥasan-e Ṣabbāḥ (d….

RĀŠED-AL-DIN SENĀN b. Salmān (or Solaymān) b. Moḥammad Abu’l-Ḥasan Baṣri (b. near Basra, 520s/1126-35; d. Kahf, Syria, 589/1193), the greatest…

PANDIYĀT-E JAVĀNMARDI, title of a Nezāri Ismaʿili book originally written in Persian and containing the sermons of Mostanṣer Be’llāh (d….

NUR-AL-DIN MOḤAMMAD II B. ḤASAN (b. Šawwāl 542/March 1148; d. 10 Rabiʿ I 607/1 September 1210), Nezāri Ismaʿili imam and…

FEDĀʾĪ ḴORĀSĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD, b. Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn b. Karbalāʾī Dāwūd (b. ca. 1266/1850; d. 1342/1923), foremost Persian Nezārī Ismaʿili author and poet…

FEDĀʾĪ (or fedāwī), devotee, a person who offers his life for others or in the service of a particular cause….

FATIMIDS, relations with Persia. A major Ismaʿili Shiʿite dynasty, the Fatimids founded their own caliphate, in rivalry with the ʿAbbasids,…

ESMĀʿĪL b. JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ, Abū Moḥammad, the sixth Imam and the eponym of the Ismaʿilis. He also carried the epithet…

DEZKŪH (or Šāhdez), a medieval mountain fortress situated in central Persia on the summit of Mount Ṣoffa, about 8 km…

DAWR (Ar. and Pers.), period, era, or cycle of history, a term used by Ismaʿilis in connection with their conceptions…

DAʿĪ (he who summons), a term used by several Muslim groups, especially the Ismaʿilis, to designate their propagandists or missionaries….

CARMATIANS (Ar. Qarāmeṭa; sing. Qarmaṭī), the name given to the adherents of a branch of the Ismaʿili movement during the…

JALĀL-AL-DIN ḤASAN III (b. 562/1166-67; d. 15 Ramażān 618/1 November 1221), Nezāri Ismaʿili imam and the sixth lord of Alamut….

IVANOW, VLADIMIR ALEKSEEVICH (b. St. Petersburg, Russia, 3 November 1886, d. Tehran, 19 June 1970; variously spelt Ivanov and Wladimir;…

ISMAʿILISM i. ISMAʿILI STUDIES In its modern and scientific form, dating to the 1930s, Ismaʿili studies represents one of the…

ISMAʿILISM ii. ISMAʿILI HISTORIOGRAPHY Ismaʿili historiography has been closely related to the very nature of the Ismaʿili mission, or daʿwa,…

ISMAʿILISM iii. ISMAʿILI HISTORY ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY On the death of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq in 148/765 his followers from…

ḤASAN ṢABBĀḤ, prominent Ismaʿili dāʿi (q.v.) and founder of the medieval Nezāri Ismaʿili state (b. Qom, mid-440s/1050s, d. Alamut, 518/1124)….

ḤASAN II, ʿALĀ ḎEKREHE’L-SALĀM, Nezāri Ismaʿili Imam and the fourth ruler of Alamut (557-61/1162-66). Born in 520/1126, Ḥasan II, whom…

ḤAMID-AL-DIN KERMĀNI, ABU’L-ḤASAN AḤMAD b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Moḥammad (d. after 411/1020-21), a prominent Ismaʿili dāʿi (q.v.) and one of the…

ḤĀKEMBE-AMR-ALLĀH, ABU ʿALI MANṢUR, the sixth Fatimid caliph and sixteenth Ismaʿili Imam (r. 386-411/996-1021). Born in 375/985, Abu ʿAli Manṣur…

GERDKŪH, a fortress on the summit of an isolated rocky hill in the Alborz mountains, situated some 18 km west…

KAHAK, Markazi Province (lat 34°10′53″ N, long 50°19′60″ E) , a village located about 35 km northeast of Anjedān and…

ḴAYRḴᵛĀH HERĀTI, Moḥammad-Reżā b. Solṭān-Ḥosayn Ḡuriāni, Nezāri Ismaʿili dāʿi, author, and poet. He was born into a prominent Nezāri Ismaʿili…