ABU’L-QĀSEM HĀRŪN B. ʿALĪ B. ẒAFAR DANDĀN, RABĪB-AL-DONYĀ WA’L-DĪN, vizier of Atabeg Ozbek b. Moḥammad b. Eldagōz, ruler of Azerbaijan, 607-22/1210-25. He is known in the sources as a patron of learning, to whom Saʿd-al-dīn Varāvīnī dedicated his Marzbān-nāma, and as an acquaintance and source of information for Moḥammad Nasavī, author of the Sīrat Jalāl-al-dīn Mīnkobernī . His full name appears in the colophon of a copy of Tarǰama-ye tafsīr-e Ṭabarī which was prepared for the library he founded in Tabrīz. The library is described by Varāvīnī in the ḏayl al-ketāb of the Marzbān-nāma (ed. Qazvīnī, pp. 297-300; ed. Rowšan, pp. 544-49). Rabīb-al-dīn was captured by the forces of Sultan ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn Moḥammad Ḵᵛārazmšāh 9596-617/1200-20), when the latter came west to fight the Salghurid Atabeg Saʿd of Fārs and Ozbek, but was released. When Moḥammad’s son, Jalāl-al-dīn, took Azerbaijan in 622/1225, Rabīb-al-dīn retired from government, set up a madrasa in his house in Tabrīz and devoted himself to religious affairs. He was alive in 624/1226-27. Mīnovī suggests that his father might have been Rabīb-al-dawla wa’l-dīn Efteḵār-e Ḵorāsān Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Mostawfī and also discusses the possibility of his having been vizier of Noṣrat-al-dīn Bīškīn prior to his service with Ozbek (Sīrat, tr., pp. 296, 408).
Bibliography : Šehāb-al-dīn Moḥammad Nasa w ī, Sīrat al-solṭān Jalāl-al-dīn Mankobertī, Arabic text ed. H. A. Ḥamdī, Cairo, 1953, pp. 37, 54, 55 (anecdote), 57, 207 (anecdote), 271, 272; Persian tr., ed. M. Mīnovī, Tehran, 1344 Š./1965, pp. 5, 24 (anecdote), 25, 144 (anecdote), 184, 185; see also note, p. 321. Saʿd-al-dīn Varāvīnī, Marzbān-nāma, ed. M. Qazvīnī, Leiden, 1908, pp. 7-10, 297-300, intro., pp. yd-yv; ed. M. Rowšan, Tehran, 1976, pp. 12-18, 544-49.
(K. A. Luther)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 21, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 4, p. 359
K. A. Luther, “ABU’L-QĀSEM HĀRŪN,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/4, p. 359; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-qasem-harun-b (accessed on 31 January 2014).
