Table of Contents

  • EAGLES

    Steven C. Anderson, William L. Hanaway, Jr.

    (Ar. and Pers. ʿoqāb; also obsolete Pers. dāl < Mid. Pers. dālman; also obsolete Pers. and Mid. Pers. āloh), large, diurnal, raptorial birds of the family Accipitridae in several genera (45-90 cm long, wingspan 110-250 cm).

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  • EARTH IN ZOROASTRIANISM

    Cross-Reference

    See ELEMENTS i.

  • EARTHQUAKES

    Daniel Balland, Habib Borjian, Xavier de Planhol, Manuel Berberian

    in Persia and Afghanistan. Both countries lie on the great alpine belt that extends from the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean through the Indonesian archipelago and forms the world’s longest collision boundary, between the Eurasian plate in the north and several former Gondwanan blocks in the south, including the so-called “Iranian plates” and “Afghan plates.”

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  • EAST AFRICA

    Mark Horton, Derek Nurse, Farouk Topan, Will. C. van den Hoonard

    Persian relations with the lands of the East African coast, particularly Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. From early times monsoon winds have permitted rapid maritime travel between East Africa and Western Asia. Although large-scale Persian settlement in East Africa is unlikely Persian cultural and religious influences nonetheless were felt.

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  • EAST AND WEST

    Antonio Panaino

    an English language quarterly published since 1950 by IsMEO (Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente [Italian Institute for Middle and Far East]) and now by the IsIAO (Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente [Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient]).

  • EAST INDIA COMPANY (BRITISH)

    R. W. Ferrier, John R. Perry

    a trading company incorporated on 31 December 1600 for fifteen years with the primary purpose of exporting the staple production of English woolen cloths and importing the products of the East Indies.

  • EAST INDIA COMPANY (DUTCH)

    Cross-Reference

    See DUTCH-PERSIAN RELATIONS.

  • EAST INDIA COMPANY (FRENCH)

    Anne Kroell

    a company established in 1664 to conduct all French commercial operations with the Orient. 

  • EAST SYRIAN MONASTERIES IN SASANIAN IRAN

    Florence Jullien

    Traces of monastic foundations in Sasanian Iran can be found in the sources as early as the 4th century CE. In the present review of the main East Syrian monasteries, emphasis is on the reformed monastic settlements of the 6th-7th centuries.

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  • EASTERN IRANIAN LANGUAGES

    Nicholas Sims-Williams

    term used to refer to a group of Iranian languages most of which are or were spoken in lands to the east of the present state of Persia.

  • EASTWICK, EDWARD BACKHOUSE

    Parvin Loloi

    (1814–1883), orientalist and diplomat, best known for his translations from Persian and Indian languages.

  • ʿEBĀDĪ, AḤMAD

    Jean During

    (1906-1993), one of the outstanding modern masters of Persian music. He played a leading role in popularizing the setār; the appeal of his performance resulted partly from the development of a new style involving slight technical and acoustical modifications to the instrument.

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  • EBĀḤĪYA

    Hamid Algar

    or EBĀḤATĪYA; a polemical term denoting either antinomianism or groups and individuals accused thereof.

  • EBER-NĀRI

    Muhammad A. Dandamayev

    the Akkadian name used in Assyrian and Babylonian records of the 8th-5th centuries B.C.E. for the lands to the west of the Euphrates—i.e., Phoenicia, Syria, and Palestine.

  • EBERMAN, VASILIĬ ALEKSANDROVICH

    Anas B. Khalidov

    (b. St. Petersburg, 1899, d. Orel, 1937), scholar of early Persian poets writing in Arabic.

  • EBIR NĀRĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See EBER-NĀRI.

  • EBLĀḠ

    Nassereddin Parvin

    lit. “communication”; title of five Persian language newspapers.

  • EBLĪS

    Hamid Algar

    a Koranic designation for the devil in Persian Sufi Tradition, derived ultimately from the Greek diabolos.

  • EBN ʿABBĀD

    Cross-Reference

    See ṢĀḤEB B. ʿABBĀD.

  • EBN ABHAR, MOḤAMMAD-TAQĪ

    Stephen Lambden

    (1854-1919), Bahai teacher and one of the “hands of the cause."

  • EBN ABĪ JOMHŪR AḤSĀʾĪ, Moḥammad

    Todd Lawson

    b. Zayn-al-Dīn Abi’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ḥosām-al-Dīn Ebrāhīm (b. ca. 1433-34; d. after 4 July 1499), Shiʿite thinker.

  • EBN ABĪ ṢĀDEQ, ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿABD-al-RAḤMĀN

    Lutz Richter-Bernburg

    b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad NAYŠĀBŪRĪ (Nīšāpūr, 11th century), medical author known in the century after his death, at least in Khorasan, as “the second Hippocrates," and reportedly a student of Avicenna.

  • EBN ABĪ ṬĀHER ṬAYFŪR, ABU’L-FAŻL AḤMAD

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    (819-93), littérateur (adīb) and historian of Baghdad, of a Khorasani family.

  • EBN ABI’L ḤADĪD

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. ABU’L ḤADĪD.

  • EBN AL-ʿAMĪD

    Ihsan Abbas

    cognomen of two famous viziers of the 4th/10th century: Abu’l-Fażl and his son Abu’l-Fatḥ.

  • EBN AL-ʿARABĪ, MOḤYĪ-al-DĪN Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad Ṭāʾī Ḥātemī

    William C. Chittick

    (b. 28 July 1165; d. 10 November 1240), the most influential Sufi author of later Islamic history, known to his supporters as al-Šayḵ al-akbar, “the Greatest Master.”

  • EBN AL-AṮĪR, ʿEZZ-AL-DĪN ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ

    D. S. Richards

    b. Moḥammad Jazarī (b. Jazīrat Ebn ʿOmar [modern Cizre, in eastern Turkey] 13 May 1160; d. Mosul, June 1233), major Islamic historian and important source for the history of Persia and adjacent areas from the Samanids to the first Mongol invasion.

  • EBN AL-BALḴĪ

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    conventional name for an otherwise unknown author of Fārs-nāma, a local history and geography of the province of Fārs written in Persian during the Saljuq period.

  • EBN AL-BAYṬĀR, ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN ABŪ MOḤAMMAD ʿABD-ALLĀH

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    b. Aḥmad (?-1248), Andalusian botanist and pharmacologist.

  • EBN AL-BAYYEʿ

    Cross-Reference

    See ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH B. AL-BAYYEʿ.

  • EBN AL-ʿEBRĪ, ABU’L-FARAJ

    Herman G. B. Teule

    (1225-1286), Syriac historian and polymath. Most of his works were in Syriac, but he also wrote in Arabic. In his Syriac Chronicle,  much attention is given to the vicissitudes of the Jacobite and East Syrian, or Nestorian, churches in the “Persian territories.” 

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  • EBN AL-EḴŠĪD, ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD

    Daniel Gimaret

    b. ʿAlī b. Beḡčor (884-938), Muʿtazilite theologian.

  • EBN AL-FAQĪH, ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD

    Anas B. Khalidov

    b. Moḥammad b. Esḥāq b. Ebrāhīm HAMADĀNĪ Aḵbārī (fl. second half of the 9th century), man of letters, who wrote in Arabic Ketāb aḵbār al- boldān, a geographic work, in which primarily the Islamic world with its centers in Arabia, Persia, and Iraq are described.

  • EBN AL-FOWAṬĪ, KAMĀL-AL-DĪN ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ

    Charles Melville

    (1244-1323), b. Aḥmad, librarian and historian.

  • EBN AL-JEʿĀBĪ, ABŪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD

    Wilferd Madelung

    (897-966), b. ʿOmar Tamīmī Ḥāfeẓ, traditionist with Shiʿite leanings.

  • EBN AL-JONAYD, ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD

    Wilferd Madelung

    or al-Jonaydī; b. Aḥmad Kāteb Eskāfī, 10th century Imami jurist.

  • EBN AL-MOQAFFAʿ, ABŪ MOḤAMMAD ʿABD-ALLĀH RŌZBEH

    J. Derek Latham

    (721-757), b. Dādūya/Dādōē, chancery secretary (kāteb) and major Arabic prose writer.

  • EBN AL-MOṬAHHAR

    Cross-Reference

    See ḤELLĪ, ʿALLĀMA.

  • EBN AL-NADĪM

    Cross-Reference

    Shi'ite scholar and bibliographer of the 10th century, famous as the author of Ketāb al-fehrest. See under FEHREST.

  • EBN AL-QAṢṢĀB, ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR MOʾAYYAD-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD

    Richard W. Bulliet

    (b. ca. 1128), b. ʿAlī, Shiʿite vizier of the caliph al-Nāṣer from 1194 to 1195.

  • EBN AL-ṬEQṬAQĀ, ṢAFĪ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD

    Charles Melville

    (1262 ?-after 1309 ?), b. ʿAlī b. Ṭabāṭabā, historian and naqīb of the ʿAlids in Ḥella.

  • EBN AMĀJŪR

    Cross-Reference

    See BANŪ AMĀJŪR.

  • EBN ʿĀMER

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿABD-ALLĀH B. ʿĀMER.

  • EBN ʿARABŠĀH, ŠEHĀB-AL-DĪN ABU’L-ʿABBĀS AḤMAD

    John E. Woods

    (1389-Cairo, 1450), b. Moḥammad … Ḥanafī ʿAjamī, literary scholar and biographer of Tamerlane (Tīmūr).

  • EBN AṢDAQ, MĪRZĀ ʿALĪ-MOḤAMMAD

    Stephen Lambden

    (b. Mašhad 1850; d. Tehran, 1928), prominent Bahai missionary.

  • EBN AŠTAR

    D.M. Dunlop

    (d. at Maskin on the Tigris, in September-October 691), Arab chief and Shiʿite military leader.

  • EBN ʿAṬṬĀŠ

    Cross-Reference

    See ʿAṬṬĀŠ.

  • EBN ʿAYYĀŠ, ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM

    Daniel Gimaret

    b. Moḥammad Baṣrī, Muʿtazilite theologian (d. late 10th century), member of the so-called “school of Baṣra” and a partisan of the ideas of Abū Hāšem Jobbāʾī.

  • EBN BĀBĀ KĀŠĀNĪ (Qāšānī), ABU’L-ʿABBĀS

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    (d. Marv, 1116-17), Persian writer and boon-companion (nadīm), whose manual for courtiers preserves otherwise lost information on the later Ghaznavids.

  • EBN BĀBAWAYH (1)

    Sheila S. Blair

    (Bābūya), family of Persian builders, luster potters, and tile makers, descended from the Shiʿite scholar Ebn Bābūya al-Ṣadūq (d. 991) and active in the 12th-14th centuries.