Solṭān Moḥammad Šāh Ḥosaynī Āqā Khan III (1294-1376/1877-1957), the “existent and present” (mawǰūd wa ḥāzÎʷer) imam of the Nezārī Ismaʿilis…

Āqā ʿAlī Šāh Āqā Khan II (1246-1303/1830-85), son of Āqā Khan Maḥallātī by Sarv-e Jahān Ḵānom, a daughter of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah….

Sayyed Ḥasan-ʿAlī Šāh Āqā Khan Maḥallātī (1219-1300/1804-81) was the last imam of the Nezārī Ismaʿilis to reside in Iran and…

KHOMEINI ii. WORKS Prodigiously erudite and energetic, Ruhollah Khomeini left as part of his legacy a vast and varied corpus…

Early life and education. Ruhollah Khomeini was born on 20 Jomādā II 1320/24 September 1902 in Ḵomeyn, a small town…

ʿABD-AL-FATTĀḤ GARMRŪDĪ (ca. 1200-64/1786-1848), a scribe and minor author of the mid-Qajar period. He was born into a clerical family…

ʿABD-AL-HĀDĪ ŠĪRĀZĪ, ĀYATALLĀH ḤĀJJ SAYYED (1305-82/1888-1962), a Šīʿī scholar of Naǰaf, highly regarded for his learning and piety. His father,…

ʿABD-AL-KARĪM GAZĪ (or JAZĪ, 1272-1339/1856-1921), a respected religious leader of Isfahan. Born to one Mollā Mandī in the village of…

ʿABDALLĀH BEHBAHĀNĪ (1256-1328/1840-1910), theologian (moǰtahed) and a prominent leader of the constitutional movement. Born in Naǰaf in 1256/1840, he was…

ʿABDALLĀH MĀZANDARĀNĪ, SHAIKH (1256-1330/1840-1912), a theologian (moǰtahed) who, through his fatvās and proclamations, lent powerful support to the constitutional movement….

ABU’L-BAQĀ B. ḴᵛĀJA BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN B. ḴᵛĀJA AḤMAD, author of Jāmeʿ al-maqāmāt on the life of the Naqšbandī saint, Mawlānā Ḵᵛāǰagī…

ʿABĀʾ (in Arabic, also ʿabāʾa and ʿabāya), a loose outer garment, generally for men, worn widely throughout the Middle East,…

ABU’L-FATḤ MĪRZĀ, MOʾAYYED-AL-DAWLA (d. 1330/1912), Qajar prince who held a number of governorships. His father was Solṭān Morād Mīrzā Ḥoṣām-al-salṭana,…

ABU’L-FAŻL MOḤAMMAD B. ḤASAN ḴOTTALĪ (d. 453/1061?), preceptor of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Hoǰvīrī (d. 465/1073), the author of the celebrated Persian…

ABU’L-ḤASAN EṢFAHĀNĪ, ĀYATALLĀH (1284-1365/1867-1946), an Iranian moǰtahed who was a leading religious authority in the Shiʿite world for more than…

ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MOJTAHED, MĪRZĀ (1121-1279/1806-63), member of a prominent family of Shiraz who led a turbulent life alternating between government…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ŠAMSĀBĀDĪ, ĀYATALLĀH (1326-96/1908-76), an influential moǰtahed of Isfahan who was murdered on 7 April 1976 under mysterious circumstances. Born…

ABU’L-ḤASAN ṬĀLAQĀNĪ, ḤOJJAT-AL-ESLĀM (?-1350/1932), religious scholar and father of the celebrated Āyatallāh Maḥmūd Ṭālaqānī. Born in the village of Gelīrd…

ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ŠĪRĀZĪ, SAYYED KAMĀL-AL-DĪN (fl. 10th/16th century), a Sufi of Shiraz, morīd of the well-known preacher, mystic and writer, Shah…

ABŪ YAʿQŪB YŪSOF B. AYYŪB HAMADĀNĪ (440-535/1048-49 to 1140), important figure in the history of Iranian and Central Asian Sufism…

AḴBĀRĪ, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD (1178-1233/1765-1818), a leading exponent of the Aḵbārī school of feqh and a violent polemicist against its opponents….

ĀḴŪND (or ĀḴOND), a word of uncertain etymology with the general meaning of religious scholar. Various Persian origins have been…

ĀḴŪNDZĀDA (in Soviet usage, AKHUNDOV), MĪRZĀ FATḤ-ʿALĪ (1812-78), Azarbaijani playwright and propagator of alphabet reform; also, one of the earliest…

ĀL-E ʿABĀ, “The Family of the Cloak,” i.e., the Prophet Moḥammad, his daughter Fāṭema, his cousin and son-in-law ʿAlī, and…

AḴYĀR (pl. of Arabic ḵayyer), “the chosen” (Persian, bargozīdagān), a category sometimes encountered in accounts given by Sufi writers of…

ʿALĪ KANĪ, MOLLĀ (1220-1306/1805-88), an influential and wealthy moǰtahed of Tehran who played a decisive role in obtaining the cancellation…

ʿAMĀMA (or ʿAMMĀMA, Arabic ʿEMĀMA), the turban. Imbued with symbolic significance, the turban was once the almost universal headgear of…

AMĪNĪ, SHAIKH ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN, also known as ʿAllāma-ye Amīnī (1320-90/1902-70), Shiʿite scholar and author of the encyclopedic al-Ḡadīr fi’l-ketāb wa’l-sonna wa’l-adab….

AMĪR(-E) KABĪR, MĪRZĀ TAQĪ KHAN (1222-68/1807-52), also known by the titles of Atābak and Amīr-e Neẓām; chief minister to Nāṣer-al-dīn…

ʿALĪ AL-AʿLĀ (d. 822/1419), also known as Amīr Sayyed ʿAlī, principal successor of Fażlallāh Astarābādī, founder of the Ḥorūfī sect….

ANGAJĪ, ḤĀJJ MĪRZĀ ABŪ’L-ḤASAN (1282-1357/1865-1939), a leading moǰtahed of Tabrīz, politically active during both the Constitutional Revolution and the reign…

ANĪS AL-ṬĀLEBĪN WA ʿODDAT AL-SĀLEKĪN, one of the most important sources extant for the life and dicta of Bahāʾ-al-dīn Naqšband,…

ANJOMAN (gathering, association, society), general designation of many private and public associations: i. Political (anǰoman-e sīāsī). ii. Religious (anǰoman-e maḏhabī)….

ANJOMAN-E SAʿĀDAT (The Association of Felicity), an organization of Iranians resident in Istanbul, devoted to furthering the cause of the…

ANJOMAN-E TABLĪḠĀT-E ESLAMĪ (The Society of Islamic Propagation), an Islamic cultural and educational society established in 1941 by ʿAṭāʾallāh Šehābpūr….

ANQARAVĪ, ROSŪḴ-AL-DĪN ESMĀʿĪL B. AḤMAD, (also known as Rosūḵī Dede) (d. 1041/1631), a shaikh in the Mawlawī order and author…

ĀQĀ (or ĀḠĀ) BOZORG ṬEHRĀNĪ, SHAIKH MOḤAMMAD-MOḤSEN (1293-1389/1876-1970), Shiʿite scholar and bibliographer. He was born on 11 Rabīʿa I 1293/6…

ASRĀR AL-TAWḤĪD FĪ MAQĀMĀT AL-ŠAYḴ ABĪ SAʿĪD, principal source for the life and teachings of the well-known mystic of Khorasan,…

ASTARĀBĀDĪ, FAŻLALLĀH ŠEHĀB-AL-DĪN B. BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN (or B. ABŪ MOḤAMMAD) (d. 796/1394), founder of the Ḥorūfī religion that achieved some prominence…

ĀŠTĪĀNĪ, ḤĀJJ MĪRZĀ ḤASAN (or MOḤAMMAD ḤASAN) B. MĪRZĀ JAʿFAR (d. 1319/1901), late nineteenth-century moǰtahed who played an important role…

ĀŠTĪĀNĪ, ḤĀJJ MĪRZĀ MAHDĪ, known as Mīrzā Kūček (1306-1372/1888-89 to 1952-53), a scholar who excelled in both the traditional (manqūl)…

ʿATABĀT  “thresholds,” more fully, ʿatabāt-e ʿalīyāt or ʿatabāt-e (or aʿtāb-e) moqaddasa “the lofty or sacred thresholds,” the Shiʿite shrine cities…

AWLĪĀʾ (more fully, awlīāʾ allāh, the “friends of God”), a term commonly translated in European languages as “saints” or the…

ĀYATALLĀH (Sign of God), an honorific title awarded by popular usage to mojtaheds, particularly the foremost among them, presumably with…

BĀB, a title given to certain Sufi shaikhs of Central Asia. It appears to be a localized variant of bābā…

BĀBĀ SANKŪ (or SANGŪ), ecstatic Central Asian dervish of disorderly habits, contemporary with Tīmūr and one of several Sufis with…

BĀBĀ SAMMĀSĪ, ḴᵛĀJA MOḤAMMAD, Central Asian Sufi of the line known as selsela-ye ḵᵛājagān (line of the masters) which was…

BADAḴŠĪ, MOLLĀ SHAH (also known as Shah Moḥammad), a mystic and writer of the Qāderī order, given both to the…

BADĪLĪ, SHAIKH AḤMAD, a Sufi shaikh in 6th/12th-century Sabzavār, renowned for his mastery of the exoteric as well as the…

BĀFQĪ, AYATOLLAH MOḤAMMAD-TAQĪ (1292-1365/1875-1946), a religious scholar known for his forthright opposition to Reżā Shah Pahlavī. Born to a merchant,…

BAḠDĀDĪ, ABU’L-FAŻL (d. 550/1155), sixth/twelfth century Sufi whose name appears in the initiatic chain of the Neʿmatallāhī order. Together with…

BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN NAQŠBAND, ḴᵛĀJA MOḤAMMAD B. MOḤAMMAD BOḴĀRĪ (718-91/1318-91), eponym of the Naqšbandīya, one of the most vigorous and widespread Sufi…

BAḤR-AL-ʿOLŪM, SAYYED MOḤAMMAD MAHDĪ (1155/1742-1212/1797), a Shiʿite scholar who exercised great influence both in Iraq and in Iran through the…

BARĀQ BĀBĀ (655-707/1257-58-1307-08), a crypto-shamanic Anatolian Turkman dervish close to two of the Mongol rulers of Iran. The name Barāq…

BARAQĪ, ḴᵛĀJA ʿABD-ALLĀH, first of the successors appointed by Ḵᵛāja Yūsof Hamadānī (d. 555/1160, q.v.) to exercise spiritual authority after…

BAHĀʾ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD WALAD B. ḤOSAYN B. AḤMAD ḴAṬĪB BALḴĪ (546-628/1151-1231), father of Mawlānā Jalāl-al-Dīn Rūmī (q.v.), the great Sufi poet…

BAḠDĀDĪ, MAWLĀNĀ ḴĀLED ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN (1193-1242/1779-1827), the founder of a significant branch of the Naqšbandī Sufi order—named Ḵāledī after him—that has…

ii. IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD In the Islamic period the term darvīš, or dervish, has been variously applied to claimants…

i. Biography Nūr-ʿAlī Elāhī was born in the village of Jeyḥūnābād, some twelve kilometers to the west of the town…

KOBRAWIYA, the most influential Sufi order of the Mongol period in Central Asia and Persia, with branches that survived elsewhere…

KĀZARUNIYA, a Sufi order (ṭariqat) so named after Abu Esḥāq Kāzaruni (d. 426/1035), alternatively designated as Esḥāqiya, especially in Turkey,…

KĀŠEF-AL-ḠEṬĀʾ, JAʿFAR B. ḴEŻR NAJAFI (b. Najaf, 1156/1743; d. Najaf, 1227/1812), Shiʿi scholar and jurist, broadly influential in both Iraq…

KANI, ḤĀJ MOLLĀ ʿALI (b. 1220/1805; d. 1306/1888-89; Figure 1), Shiʿi scholar whose power and prominence in the affairs of…

KALBĀSI (KARBĀSI), Ḥāj Moḥammad Ebrāhim (b. Isfahan, 1766; d. Isfahan, 1845), prominent Oṣuli jurist, influential in the affairs of Isfahan…

JAʿFAR AL-ṢĀDEQ iii. And Sufism With a single exception, that of the Naqšbandiya, all the Sufi orders claim initiatic descent…

JĀMI ii. AND SUFISM Among the several facets of Jāmi’s persona and career—Sufi, scholar, poet, associate of rulers—it may be…

BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI vi. Regulations Governing Slavery in Islamic Jurisprudence Slavery is designated in feqh (i.e., religious law, although not in…

EMĀMZĀDA i. Function and devotional practice In Mafātīḥ al-janān (p. 562), the best known contemporary manual of Shiʿite devotions, Shaikh…

CLEANSING ii. In Islamic Persia The identification of unclean objects (najāsāt) and of the factors or agents that, within certain…

BURIAL iv. In Islam Although replete with reminders of death and its significance, the Qurʾān is silent on the subject…

FEVZİ (FAWZĪ) MOSTĀRĪ (d. 1160/1747), author of the Bolbolestān, an imitation of Saʿdī’s Golestān, the only prose work written in…

FAYŻ-E KĀŠĀNĪ, MOLLĀ MOḤSEN-MOḤAMMAD, b. Šāh Mortażā b. Šāh Maḥmūd (b. 1006/1598 or 1007/1599; d. 1090/1679), prolific and versatile scholar…

FATWĀ (or in some early sources fotyā; pl. fatāwā or fatāwī), the authoritative ruling of a religious scholar on questions…

EMĀM-E JOMʿA, leader of the congregational prayer performed at midday on Fridays. This prayer, comprising two prayer cycles (rakʿas) preceded…

EBLĪS in Persian Sufi Tradition. The word Eblīs, a Koranic designation for the devil, appears to derive ultimately from the…

EBĀḤĪYA (or EBĀḤATĪYA), a polemical term denoting either antinomianism or groups and individuals accused thereof. It occurs generally in the…

ḎU’L-RĪĀSATAYN, ḤĀJJ MĪRZĀ ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN MŪNES-ʿALĪŠĀH (b. Shiraz, 1290/1873, d. Tehran, 25 Ḵordād 1332 Š./15 June 1953), for thirty years leader…

ḎU’L-LESĀNAYN “possessor of two tongues,” epithet often bestowed upon bilingual poets. It appears to have originated in Arabic as an…

DOʿĀ, the act of offering supplicatory or petitionary prayer, a principal manifestation of Muslim piety. Doʿā, with the literal meaning…

DARBANDĪ, MULLA ĀQĀ b. ʿĀbed b. Ramażān, commonly known as Fāżel Darbandī (d. Tehran, 1286/1869-70), Shiʿite scholar and preacher of…

DĀR AL-ḤARB “the realm of war,” lands not under Islamic rule, a juridical term for certain non-­Muslim territory, though often…

DAKANĪ, SAYYED MĪR ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD MAʿṢŪM-ʿALISĀH (ca. 1151-1211 or 1212/ca. 1738-97), the “renewer” (mojadded) of the Neʿmat-Allāhī Sufi order in Persia…

DAJJĀL (the great deceiver), in Islamic tradition the maleficent figure gifted with supernatural powers whose advent and brief, though quasi-universal,…

DAHBĪDĪYA, a hereditary line of Naqšbandī Sufis centered on the shrine at Dahbīd, a village about 11 km. from Samarqand….

ḎAHABĪYA, a Sufi order of Shiʿite allegiance, ultimately derived from the Kobrawīya order, founded in the mid-12th century by Najm-al-Dīn…

ČELLA, term referring to any forty-day period. i. In Persian folklore. ii. In Sufism.   i. In Persian Folklore In…

ČARḴĪ, Mawlānā Yaʿqūb b. ʿOṯmān b. Maḥmūd (d. 851/1447), an early shaikh of the Naqšbandī order and author of several…

CALIPHS AND THE CALIPHATE, as viewed by the Shiʿites of Persia. Shiʿite attitudes in rejection of the legitimacy of the…

ČAHĀRDAH MAʿṢŪM, the fourteen inerrant or immaculate personages venerated by Twelver Shiʿites, i.e., the Prophet Moḥammad, his daughter Fāṭema, and…

ČĀDOR, a loose female garment covering the body, sometimes also the face (Figure 1). The etymology of the word is…

BORŪJERDĪ, AYATOLLAH ḤĀJJ ĀQĀ ḤOSAYN ṬABĀṬABĀʾĪ (1292-1380/1875-1961), director (zaʿīm) of the religious teaching institution (ḥawza) at Qom for seventeen years…

BORŪJERDĪ, ḤOSAYN b. Moḥammad-Reżā Ḥosaynī, Shiʿite scholar of the Qajar period, noted chiefly for his works on ʿelm al-rejāl. His…

BORQAʿĪ (Ar. Borqoʿī), AYATOLLAH ʿALĪ-AKBAR, religious leader of the postwar period to whom leftist tendencies were imputed and whose name…

BOQʿA (plur. beqāʿ or boqaʿ but commonly although incorrectly boqāʿ), the mausoleum of a sacred or revered personage, sometimes taken…

BOḴĀRĪ ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD b. Moḥammad (also known as ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār), close associate and primary successor of Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Naqš­band (q.v.), the…

BOḴĀRĪ, AMĪR AḤMAD (d. 922/1516), a Sufi instrumental in establishing the Naqšbandī order in Turkey. He was born in Bukhara…

BĪNAMĀZĪ, NPers. “the state of being without prayer,” term for the state of a menstruant woman. i.In Zoroastrianism. ii. In…

BESṬĀMĪ (Basṭāmī), SHAIKH ŠEHĀB-AL-­DĪN (d. 807/1405), a Sufi shaikh of Herat during the Timurid period. He began his career as…

BESṬĀMĪ (Basṭāmī), ABŪ MOḤAMMAD BĀYAZĪD b. ʿEnāyat-Allāh, a 10th/16th-century faqīh and Sufi of Khorasan. Born in Besṭām, he spent most…

BESṬĀMĪ (Basṭāmī), ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN b. Moḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-Ḥanafī, al-Ḥorūfī (d. 858/1454), Ottoman polymath of Khorasanian ances­try. Some recent sources attribute…

BESMELLĀH, Islamic formula meaning “in the name of God,” more fully Besmellāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm “in the name of God, the…

BEKTĀŠĪYA, a syncretic and heterodox Sufi order, found principally in Anatolia and the Balkans, with offshoots in other regions, named…

BEKTĀŠ, ḤĀJĪ (d. 669/1270-71?), Khorasanian Sufi and eponym of the Bektāšī order (see bektāšǰya), once widespread in Anatolia and the…

BEHEŠT-E ZAHRĀʾ, the chief cemetery of Teh­ran and principal shrine of the Islamic Revolution of 1357 Š./1978-79. Its name, “the…

BEHBAHĀNĪ, ĀQĀ SAYYED MOḤAMMAD-­BĀQER, Shiʿite mojtahed and champion of the Oṣūlī school in Shiʿite law (feqh). Often designated as Waḥīd-e…

BEHBAHĀNĪ, ĀQĀ MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER (1144-1216/1731-1801), Shiʿite mojtahed celebrated primarily for his ferocious hatred of Sufis. He was a son…

BEHBAHĀNĪ, AYATOLLAH MOḤAMMAD (1291-1383/1874-1963), a leading mojtahed of Tehran who played a role of some importance in the events of…

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

KĀŠEF-AL-ḠEṬĀʾ, MOḤAMMAD ḤOSAYN B. ʿALI B. REŻĀ B. MUSĀ (b. Najaf, 1877; d. Karand, 1954), one of the most illustrious…

IRAN ix, continued ix (2.3). Shiʿism in Iran Since the Safavids THE SAFAVID PERIOD The Safavids originated as a hereditary…

IRAN ix, continued (2) Islam in Iran The coming of Islam to the Iranian plateau and the westerly regions of…

IRAN ix, continued (2.2) The Mongol and Timurid Periods The cataclysm of the Mongol invasion resulted not only in Persia…

HORUFISM, a body of antinomian and incarnationist doctrines evolved by Fażl-Allāh Astarābādi (d. 796/1394; q.v.), known to his followers also…

ḤOJJAT-AL-ESLĀM (lit. Proof of Islam), a title awarded to Shiʿite scholars, originally as an honorific but later as a means…

ḤELYAT AL-MOTTAQIN (“The Adornment of the Godfearing”), a compendious work that has remained highly popular, by the Shiʿite traditionist Mollā…

ḤASAN ŠIRĀZI, MIRZĀ MOḤAMMAD, often referred to as Mirzā-ye Širāzi, leading Shiʿite cleric chiefly renowned for the role he played…

ḤĀʾERI, Shaikh ʿABD-AL-KARIM YAZDI (b. 1276/1859, d. 17 Ḏuʾl-qaʿda 1355/30 January 1937; Figure 1), an influential “source of emulation” (marjaʿ-e…

HADITH iv. HADITH IN SUFISM   In keeping with all other categories of Islamic literature, the writings of the Sufis…

GONĀBĀDI ORDER, an offshoot of the Neʿmat-Allāhi Sufi order, still active in Persia. The designation Gonābādi refers to the Gonābād…

GOLŠAN-E RĀZ (The Rose Garden of Mysteries), a concise didactic matnawi in a little over a thousand distichs on the…

GOLESTĀNA, ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Mirzā MOḤAMMAD, b. Šāh Abu Torāb Moḥammad-ʿAli (d. 1110/1698-99), prominent religious scholar of the Safavid period, a scion…

FREEMASONRY ii. IN THE QAJAR PERIOD Persians made their first acquaintance with Freemasonry outside Persia, in India, and more importantly…

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Persian Influence in Ottoman and post-Ottoman times. During their long association with the Ottomans, which began in…

KOBRAWIYA ii. THE ORDER The crystallization of a given line of Sufi tradition as an “order” should not be understood…

KOBRAWIYA, the most influential Sufi order of the Mongol period in Central Asia and Persia, with branches that survived elsewhere…

KĀŠḠARI, SAʿD-AL-DIN (d. 860/1456), propagator of the Naqšbandi order in Timurid Herat (qq.v.), noteworthy primarily as the initiator of ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Jāmi into…