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

A version of this article is available in print Volume XVI, Fascicle 5-6, pp. 542-590 KHOMEINI, RUHOLLAH MUSAVI (Ruḥ-Allāh Musawi…

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 Koran 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…

ELĀHĪ, ḤĀjj NŪR ʿALĪ (or ʿAlīšāh; 1895-1974; Plate I), innovative and charismatic leader of one branch of the Ahl-e Ḥaqq…

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…

DARVĪŠ, a poor, indigent, ascetic, and abstemious person or recluse (Av. drəgu-, driγu- “the needy one, dependent”; Lommel, pp. 127-28;…

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

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), 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…

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

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

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

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…

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…

HADITH. i. A General Introduction ii. Hadith in Shiʿism iii. Hadith in Ismaʿilism iv. Hadith in Sufism v. Hadith as…

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…