Khorasan changed hands several times between the Safavids and the Uzbeks during the 16th century. Eventually, it was under Shah ʿAbbās…

ḴĀTUNĀBĀDI, MIR ʿABD-AL-ḤOSAYN (b. Isfahan, 8 Šaʿbān 1038/23 March 1630; d. Isfahan, Rajab 1105/March 1694), 17th-century Persian historian. Life.  ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn…

ḤAYDAR ṢAFAVI (حیدر صفوی, b. Āmed, Diyarbakir, ca. Ramażān 863/July 1459; d. Tābasarān, Dagestan, 893/1488), spiritual leader (moršed) of the…

MAḴDUM ŠARIFI ŠIRĀZI (مخدوم شریفی شیرازی), Mirzā Moʿin-al-Din Ašraf (b. Shiraz, 947/1540-41; d. Mecca, Ḏu’l-ḥajja 995/October-November 1587), Sunni bureaucrat and…

SISTĀNI, MIRZĀ ŠĀH-ḤOSAYN  b. Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Moḥammad Sistāni (میرزا شاه حسین سیستانی, b. Sarābān, 14 Šaʿbān 978/21 January 1571; d. after…

ḤAYĀTI TABRIZI, QĀSEM BEG (قاسم بیگ حیاتی تبریزی), sixteenth-century Persian historian whose chronicle, which he refers to just as Tāriḵ,…

ḠAFFĀRI QAZVINI, AḤMAD (احمد غفاری قزوینی, b. Qazvin; d. Debal, Sindh, 975/1568), 16th-century Persian scribe and historian who authored two…

ESMĀʿIL II (b. 31 May 1537, Qom; d. 24 November 1577, Qazvin), the third Safavid monarch (r. 984-85/1576-77). Born on the…

SAYFI QAZVINI, Nāṣer-al-din Mir Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd-al-laṭif (b. Qazvin, 19 Ḏu’l-qaʿda, 885/20 January 1481; d. Isfahan, 8 Rabiʿ I, 962/ 31…

ZAYNAB BEGUM (d. Qazvin, 9 Ṣafar 1050/31 May 1640), the fourth daughter of Shah Ṭahmāsp (r. 1524-76) and one of the…

ḴORŠĀH B. QOBĀD ḤOSEYNI, NEẒĀM-AL-DIN (d. 25 Ḏo’l-Qaʿda 972/4 July 1565), a Hyderabad-based diplomat and historian of Iranian descent best known…

ḴĀKI ŠIRĀZI, ḤASAN BEG  (حسن بیگ خاکی شیرازی, d. 1612), Persian historian and bureaucrat, whose chronicle, titled Aḥsan al-tavāriḵ, is…

KAŠF AL-ẒONUN (“Unveiling of suppositions”), a major bibliographical dictionary in Arabic, composed by Kāteb Čelebi Moṣṭafā b. ʿAbd-Allāh, also known…

EṢFAHĀNI, MOḤAMMAD MAʿṢUM (محمد معصوم اصفهانی) b. Ḵˇāja ʿAli-Šāh (b. ca. 1597, Isfahan; d. ca. 1647, Ganja), Safavid bureaucrat and historian,…

ḴĀDEM-E BESṬĀMI, Moḥammad Ṭāher b. Ḥasan, local historian, calligrapher, and poet of the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (Ḵādem-e Besṭāmi’s…

AFUŠTAʾI NAṬANZI, MAḤMUD b. Hedāyat-Allāh (b. ca. 1539; d. after 1599), Persian poet and historian whose chronicle, Noqāwat al-āṯār fi…