Table of Contents

  • MOḤAMMAD AL-JAWĀD, ABU JAʿFAR

    Louis Medoff

    (811-835), ninth imam of the Twelver Shiʿites, the only child of Imam ʿAli al-Reżā, was only seven years of age at the time of his father's death; The prospect of a non-adult imam brought about widespread confusion in the community.

  • MOḤAMMAD b. ʿABD-ALLAH

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    (824/25-867), Abu’l -ʿAbbās, high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate.

  • MOḤAMMAD B. BOZORG-OMID

    Farhad Daftary

    the third lord of Alamut. He had been designated as heir by his father, Kiā Bozorg-Omid, only three days earlier.  Moḥammad duly received the allegiance of all the Nezāri territories in Persia and Syria.

  • MOḤAMMAD B. NOṢAYR

    Yaron Friedman

    Abu Šoʿayb al-Nomayri/al-Namiri (d. after 868), the founder and eponym of the Nomayriya/Namiriya sect.

  • MOḤAMMAD NĀDER SHAH

    May Schinasi

    (1883-1933), king of Afghanistan, first representative of the new Dorrāni dynasty.

  • MOḤAMMAD SHAH QĀJĀR

    Jean Calmard

    (1808-1848), the third ruler of the Qajar dynasty after his grandfather Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah.

  • MOḤAMMAD-AYYUB KHAN

    R. D. McChesney

    born Amir Šēr-ʿAli Khan, a prominent Afghan political figure of the Moḥammadzi clan (1857-1914).

  • MOḤAMMAD-TAQI WAKIL-AL-DAWLA ŠIRĀZI

    Soli Shahvar

    (1830-1911), prominent Iranian Bahai merchant from Shiraz.

  • MOHASSESS, ARDESHIR

    Nicky Nodjoumi

    The youngest of four children, Ardeshir was born to ʿAbbās-Qoli and Sorur Mahkāma Moḥaṣṣeṣṣ. His father was a judge and died when Ardeshir was an infant.  His mother, an educator and the principal of the first school for girls in Rasht, was a poet and literary figure and a close acquaintance of Parvin Eʿteṣāmi.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOḤSENI, Akbar

    Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi

    (1912-1995) composer and prominent performer of the Ud (lute).

  • MOḤTĀJ DYNASTY

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀL-E MOḤTĀJ.

  • MOḤTAŠAM KĀŠĀNI

    Paul Losensky

    (1528/29-1588), Šams-al-Šoʿarā Kamāl-al-Din, Persian poet of the Safavid period who was born and died in Kashan.

  • MOʿIN-AL-DIN NAṬANZI

    D. Aigle

    early 15th-century historian, author of the Montaḵab al-tavāriḵ, a general chronicle on dynastic history of Iran in the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, dedicated to the Timurid ruler Šāhroḵ (1405-47).

  • MOʿIN-E MOṢAVVER

    Robert Eng

    (b. ca.1610-15; d. ca 1693), Safavid manuscript and album painter, arguably the most prominent artist of the second half of the 17th century.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOʿJEZ ŠABESTARI

    Hasan Javadi

    (1874-1934), a satirical poet in Azerbaijani, fairly unknown during his lifetime. A social problem is addressed in every one of his poems.

  • MOJIR-AL-DIN BAYLAQĀNI

    Anna Livia Beelaert

    Persian poet of the 12th century, born in Baylaqān in Arrān (now part of the Republic of Azerbaijan); and a contemporary of Khāqāni ŠervāniAṯir-al-Din Aḵsikati, and Jamāl-al-Din Eṣfahāni.

  • MOJMAL AL-TAWĀRIḴ WA’L-QEṢAṢ

    Siegfried Weber and Dagmar Riedel

    an anonymous chronicle from the 12th century in the Persian tradition of literary historiography. The work concentrates on the Persian rulers before the advent of Islam, the Muslim conquests, and events related to Hamadān, indicating that the work probably originated there.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOJTAHED

    Cross-Reference

    “jurist” in Arabic. For the religious-legal sciences in Shiism, see EJTEHĀD.

  • MOḴAMMESA

    Mushegh Asatryan

    an early extremist Shiʿite (ḡolāt) sect who divinized five members (ahl al-kesāʾ/Āl-e ʿabā “the family of the cloak”) of the Prophet Moḥammad’s family.

  • MOKRI TRIBE

    Pierre Oberling

    a Kurdish tribe of western Iranian Azerbaijan.

  • MOḴTĀR-NĀMA

    Daniela Meneghini

    a wide-ranging collection of quatrains (2,088 in number) attributed to the mystic poet Farid-al-Din ʿAṭṭār (d. ca. 1221).

  • MOLÉ, MARIJAN 

    Philippe Gignoux

    (1924-63), distinguished scholar of ancient Iran and Persian Sufism.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOLLA NASREDDIN i. THE PERSON

    Hasan Javadi

    character who appears in thousands of stories, always witty, sometimes wise, even philosophic, sometimes the instigator of practical jokes on others and often a fool or the butt of a joke.

  • MOLLA NASREDDIN ii. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL WEEKLY

    Hasan Javadi

    a political and social weekly in Azeri Turkish (1906-31, with interruptions), with tremendous impact on the course of journalism and development of ideas.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOLLĀ ṢADRĀ ŠIRĀZI

    Sajjad H. Rizvi

    (1571/72-1635/36?), Ṣadr-al-Din Moḥammad, arguably the most significant Islamic philosopher after Avicenna.

  • MOMAYYEZ, Morteżā

    EIr

    (1936-2005), illustrator, painter, teacher and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of graphic design in contemporary Iran.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MONĀJĀT

    Multiple Authors

    a prayer genre which is often associated with the mystical verses of the Persian poet ʿAbdallāh Anṣāri (d. 1089) compiled in his famous Monājāt-nāma.

  • MONĀJĀT i. In Zoroastrianism

    Beate Schmermbeck

    The Arabic word monājāt is often translated as “intimate conversation” referring to a Qurʾanic verse (19:52) in which the verb nājā describes Moses talking confidentially with God at the Sinai.

  • MONCHI-ZADEH, DAVOUD

    Siamak Adhami

    (Dāvud Monšizāda; b. Tehran, 28 August 1914; d. Uppsala, 13 July 1989), Iranian linguist and political activist.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MONʿEMĪ

    Cross-Reference

    18th-century historian of Kashmir. See ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM.

  • MONGOLS

    Peter Jackson

    an Altaic people who conquered an empire that embraced China, Central Asia, the south Russian steppe, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.

  • MONGOLS ii. Mongolian Loanwords in Persian

    Michael Knüppel

    early Turkic and Mongolian have many common features that were occasionally interpreted as indications to a genetic relationship between the two language families.

  • MONJIK TERMEḎI

    Ehsan Shavarebi

    a Persian-language poet of the late 10th century.

  • MONKEY

    Cross-Reference

    See BŪZĪNA.

  • MONẒEM, Mirzā ʿAbd-al-Wāḥed

    Keith Hitchins

    (1875 or 1877-1934), a Tajik poet, social activist, and journalist. Raised and influenced by Ṣadr-e Żiāʾ, he eventually embarked upon a career as a poet and commentator on public issues as an ardent proponent of education and general enlightenment, and a resolute opponent of the emir of Bokhara’s regime.

  • MOOREY, Peter Roger Stuart

    John Curtis

    Moorey sat on various administrative bodies and received many distinctions. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1967. Reflecting his involvement with Iranian studies and related fields, he was a member of the Governing Council of the British Institute of Persian Studies. 

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOQANNAʿ

    Patricia Crone

    (lit. “the veiled one,” d. 163/780 or later), leader of a rebellious movement in Sogdiana.

  • MORḠ-E SAḤAR

    Morteza Hosayni Dehkordi and Parvin Loloi

    (Dawn bird), a taṣnif (song) in māhur mode,  probably written for its music around 1921, when the first signs of dictatorship were appearing.

  • MORḠĀB

    Habib Borjian

    district covering the Pamir Plateau in eastern Tajikistan, of which it is the administrative center. 

  • MORGENSTIERNE, Georg Valentin von Munthe af

    Fridrick Thordarson

    Norwegian linguist and orientalist, specializing in Indo-Iranian languages, particularly those spoken in Afghanistan, the Pamirs, and the northwest of the Indian subcontinent (1892-1978).

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOSADDEQ, HAMID

    Saeed Rezaei

    (1940-1998), Persian poet, lawyer, and university professor.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOSAFERIDS

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    a dynasty of Deylamite origin.  Its original center of power was at Šamirān in the district of Ṭārom on the middle course of the Safidrud river in the region of Deylam, but it subsequently extended its authority over a large part of northwestern Iran.

  • MOSAHEB, GHOLAM-HOSAYN

    Hormoz Homayounpour

    (1910-1979), mathematician, logician, university professor, the founder and general editor of the Dāyerat al-maʿāref-e fārsi, and one of the few scholars honored both before and after the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 for their achievements.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOSES OF CHORENE

    Cross-Reference

    (5th century), priest and bishop, to whom is attributed the work, History of Armenia (Patmut‘iwn Hayoc‘); see MOVSĒS XORENAC‘I.

  • MOSHFEQ-e KAZEMI, SAYYED MORTAZA

    Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

    (1904-1978), author of Iran’s first social novel.

  • MOSHIRI, FEREYDUN

    Saeid Rezvani

    In 1945 Moshiri began to work for the Ministry of Post and Telegraph. He continued to pursue his education while employed. He received his diploma in 1965 and enrolled at the then Faculty of Literature of Tehran University, but never completed the course of study, switching to journalism instead.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MOSTA’AN, Hosayn-Qoli

    Ḥasan Mirʿābedini

    (1904-1983), noted serial writer, journalist, and translator.

  • MOTʿA

    Shahla Haeri

    in Islamic law, the word (lit. “pleasure”) used as a technical term for a marriage contracted for a definite period of time.

  • MOʾTAMEN, Zeyn-al-ʿĀbedin

    Ali Gheissari

    A teacher, writer, and scholar of Persian literature.

  • MOVSĒS XORENAC‘I

    Nina Garsoïan

    from the later Middle Ages, and down to the present, honored as the “Father of Armenian History” (Patmahayr). According to his own words, he was a pupil of St. Maštoc‘, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, writing in the 5th century CE. 

  • MOZAFFARIDS

    Patrick Wing

    (Āl-e Moẓaffar), family of governors of Yazd under the Il-Khanids, who expanded their domain after the collapse of the Il-Khanid power and established the Mozaffarid dynasty in Yazd, KermanFars, and ʿErāq-e ʿAjam, which endured until its destruction by Timur (Tamerlane). 

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MUGH, MOUNT

    Gregory Semenov

    site of the 7th-8th-century refuge of the rulers of Panjikant in Sogdiana, where an important archive of documents written in Sogdian was discovered in the 1930s.

  • MUHAMMADIEV, Fazliddin

    Keith Hitchins

    Tajik writer (1928-1986). Numerous works of his were translated into Russian and other languages of the Soviet Union and of Eastern Europe.

  • MÜLLER, FRIEDRICH

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    (1834-1898), Austrian scholar of linguistics and ethnography. He was the founder and main advocate of the so-called “linguistic ethnography.” He worked on a genealogical classification and a description of all the languages around the globe known at his time (and often examined for the first time by himself). 

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MÜLLER, Friedrich W. K.

    Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst

    (1863-1930), scholar of Oriental cultures and languages; he was able to make groundbreaking discoveries and to make a major contribution to the establishment of the philological and historical study of texts in Middle Iranian and Old Turkish and to the study of original Manichean texts.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MUNICH, PERSIAN ART IN

    Avinoam Shalem

    The collecting of Persian art in Munich goes back at least to the reign of Duke Albrecht V (r. 1516-75). Artifacts of oriental origin were mainly registered as exotica. For example, between 1545 and 1550, Hans Mielich (1516-73), the court painter of Albrecht V, provided the duke with an illustrated inventory of the varied treasures in the court.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MURAL PAINTING

    Sheila R. Canby

    Early examples of mural painting are at sites on the western and eastern fringes of the Iranian world, such as Dura Europos, Syria, and Kuh-e Ḵˇāja in Sistān, where wall paintings range from the late Parthian to the late Sasanian period.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MUSĀ YABḠU

    Osman G. Özgüdenli

    the eponymous strongman of a Ḡozz clan, whose nephew Toḡrel founded the Saljuq dynasty.

  • MUSHFIQI, ABDURAHMON

    Keith Hitchins

    (Mošfeqi, ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān), Tajik poet (1525-1588).

  • MUSHKI, TALL-E

    Yoshihiro Nishiaki

    an early Pottery Neolithic site in Fars Province, southwest Iran. Located approximately 11 km southeast of Persepolis, this eponymous site for the Mushki culture forms a small and low mound.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MUSIC HISTORY i. Pre-Islamic Iran

    Bo Lawergren

    The documentation is largely archeological with a sprinkling of textual sources, and some evidence is here assembled to outline Iran’s pre-Islamic music history.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • MUSIC HISTORY ii. CA. 650 TO 1370 CE

    Eckhard Neubauer

    When in 31/651 Yazdgerd III, the last Sasanian king, left Iran, fleeing from the Arab troops, he took with him “1,000 cooks and 1,000 musicians.”

  • Marsiye Ḵāni

    music sample

  • Menu of Music Samples

    music sample

    a collection of music samples with their related entries on The Encyclopaedia Iranica.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • Mirqambar

    music sample

  • Mowlūd Ḵvāni in Mināb

    music sample

  • M~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

    Cross-Reference

    list of all the figure and plate images in the letter M entries.