Table of Contents

• ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ HAMADĀNĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  saintly specialist in the science of Koran readings (qerāʾāt) and Tradition, born in Hamadān in 488/1090 and died in 569/1173.

• ABU’L-ʿALĀʾ ŠOŠTARĪ

  M. Zand

  early Persian poet and prosodist (the earliest known from the Šoštar area).

• ABU’L-ʿAMAYṮAL

  I. Abbas

  Tahirid court poet.

• ABU’L-ʿANBAS ṢAYMARĪ

  D. Pingree

  astrologer and author, born at Kūfa, 213/828; died 275/889. 

• ABU’L-BAQĀʾ

  H. Algar

  author of Jāmeʿ al-maqāmāt on the life of the Naqšbandī saint, Mawlānā Ḵᵛāǰagī Kāsānī (d. 949/1542), written in 1028/1618.

• ABU’L-BARAKĀT BAḠDĀDĪ

  W. Madelung

  5th-6th/11th-12th century physician and philosopher of Jewish origin, born in Balad, a town on the Tigris above Mosul.

• ABU’L-BARAKĀT LĀHŪRĪ

  M. U. Memon

  Indo-Persian poet.

• ABU’L-FARAJ BANNĀʾ

  O. Watson

  a potter known through a single signed piece reputedly found in Sāva.

• ABU’L-FARAJ ʿEBRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  (b. Malaṭīa, 1225; d. Marāḡa, 1286), Syriac historian and polymath, also known as Bar Hebraeus. See EBN AL-ʿEBRĪ, ABU’L-FARAJ.

• ABU’L-FARAJ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  K. Abū Deeb

  Author of the Ketāb al-aḡānī.

• ABU’L-FARAJ RŪNĪ

  M. Siddiqi

  an early Persian poet. Nothing is known about his birth and early life, except that he was born in Rūna, the exact location of which is uncertain.

• ABU’L-FARAJ SEJZĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  4th/10th century poet of Sīstān, author of several lost works on the art of poetry.

• ABU’L-FATḤ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  D. Pingree

  An early 6th/12th century astronomer.

• ABU’L-FATḤ ḤOSAYNĪ

  E. Glassen

  Shiʿite jurist, d. 976/1568-69.

• ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN BAḴTĪĀRĪ

  J. R. Perry

  a chieftain of the Haft Lang branch of the Baḵtīārī and paramount chief (īlḵānī) of the tribe.

• ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN JAVĀNŠĪR

  H. Busse

  son of the ruler of Qarābāḡ, Ebrāhīm Ḵalīl Khan Javānšīr, and through his sister brother-in-law of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah. 

• ABU’L-FATḤ KHAN ZAND

  H. Busse

  eldest son of Karīm Khan (Wakīl) of the Īnāq lineage of the Zand, b. 1169/1755-56.

• ABU’L-FATḤ MĪRZĀ

  H. Algar

  (d. 1330/1912), Qajar prince who held a number of governorships.

• ABU’L-FATḤ YŪSOF

  C. E. Bosworth

  Ghaznavid vizier of the early 6th/12th century.

• ABU’L-FAYŻ KAMĀL-AL-DĪN SERHENDĪ

  J. G. J. ter Harr

  author of Rawżat al-qayyūmīya, a still unpublished taḏkera of the Naqšbandīya-Moǰaddedīya order in India. 

• ABU’L-FAŻL ABŪ MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-ḤAMĪD B. VĀSEʿ.

• ABU’L-FAŻL ʿALLĀMĪ

  R. M. Eaton

  historian, officer, chief secretary, and confidant of the Mughal emperor Akbar I.

• ABU’L-FAŻL GOLPĀYEGĀNĪ

  M. Momen

  prominent Bahaʾi scholar and apologist.

• ABU’L-FAŻL ḴOTTALĪ

  H. Algar

  (d. 453/1061?), preceptor of Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Hoǰvīrī (d. 465/1073), the author of the celebrated Persian treatise on Sufism, Kašf al-maḥǰūb.

• ABU’L-FAŻL MĪKĀL

  S. ʿA. Anwār

  author and poet, d. 436/1045.

• ABU’L-FAŻL SĀVAJĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  (1248-1312/1832-95), a scholar, calligrapher, poet, and physician active in Qajar court circles.

• ABU’L-FAŻL ŠĪRĀZĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  vizier in the time of the Buyids, patron of the Shiʿi Arab poet Ebn al-Ḥaǰǰāǰ, born in Shiraz in 303/915, died at Kūfa in 362/973.

• ABU’L-FAŻL TĀJ-AL-DĪN

  C. E. Bosworth

  amir of the line of later Saffarids, sometimes called the third dynasty of Saffarids and, by a historian like Jūzǰānī, the “Maleks of Nīmrūz and Seǰestān.”

• ABU’L-FOTŪḤ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  J. A. Wakin

  known also by his laqab Montaǰab-al-dīn (or in some sources Montaḵab-al-dīn), a well-known Shafeʿite scholar and traditionist.

• ABU’L-FOTŪḤ RĀZĪ

  M. J. McDermott

  Shiʿite commentator on the Koran who lived in the first half of the 6th/12th century.

• ABU’L-ḠĀZĪ BAHĀDOR KHAN

  B. Spuler

  khan of Ḵīva (r. 1054-74/1644 to 1663-64) and Čaḡatāy historian.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN AHWĀZĪ

  D. Pingree

  astronomer, fl. after ca. 215/830. 

• ABU’L-ḤASAN EṢFAHĀNĪ

  H. Algar

  (1284-1365/1867-1946), an Iranian moǰtahed who was a leading religious authority in the Shiʿite world for more than thirty years.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ESFARĀʾĪNĪ

  C. E. Bosworth

  first vizier for the Ghaznavid sultan Maḥmūd (r. 388-421/998-1030). 

• ABU’L-ḤASAN GOLESTĀNA

  R. D. McChesney

  vizier of Kermānšāhān and chronicler of post-Afsharid Iran.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN HERAVĪ

  D. Pingree

  medieval mathematician.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN JORJĀNĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  9th-century Shafeʿite jurist, poet, and man of letters.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ḴARAQĀNĪ

  H. Landolt

  (352-425/963-1033), Sufi shaikh of Ḵaraqān, some 20 km north of Basṭām in Khorasan.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ARDALĀN

  Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī

  (b. 1279/1862-63), government official under the late Qajars.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ḠAFFĀRĪ

  B. W. Robinson

  In 1842 an oil portrait of Moḥammad Shah secured him a position as a court artist. His style by now was formed; in oil painting it was refinement on that of Mehr-ʿAlī; but his miniature paintings and portraits show originality, naturalism, and technical perfection.

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• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN ĪLČĪ

  H. Javadi

  Persian diplomat, b. 1190/1776 in Šīrāz. 

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MAḤALLĀTĪ

  H. Busse

  imam of the Nezārī Ismaʿilis of the Qāsemšāhī line, beglerbegi of Kermān under Karīm Khan Zand and his successors from approximately 1181/1768 to 1206/1791-92.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN KHAN MOJTAHED

  H. Algar

  (1806-63), member of a prominent family of Shiraz who led a turbulent life alternating between government service and the cultivation of religious knowledge in a manner unusual in Qajar Iran.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN MOSTAWFĪ

  F. Gaffary

  painter and historian of the 12th/18th century from Kāšān, son of Mīrzā Moʿezz-al-dīn Moḥammad Ḡaffārī.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN NĀDER-AL-ZAMĀN

  D. Duda

  Emperor Jahāngīr had him trained to be a court painter like his father. By their use of color and line, father and son together noticeably strengthened the Persian elements in the Mughal painting of the period.

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• ABU’L-ḤASAN ŠAMSĀBĀDĪ

  H. Algar

  (1326-96/1908-76), an influential moǰtahed of Isfahan who was murdered on 7 April 1976 under mysterious circumstances.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN TAFREŠĪ

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  (1261-1323/1845 to 1905-06), medical instructor, author, and public health official in late Qajar Persia.

• ABU’L-ḤASAN ṬĀLAQĀNĪ

  H. Algar

  (?-1350/1932), religious scholar and father of the celebrated Āyatallāh Maḥmūd Ṭālaqānī.

• ABU’L-HAYJĀ NAJMĪ

  Ḏ. Ṣafā

  Persian poet of the 5th-6th/11th-12th centuries.

• ABU’L-HAYṮAM GORGĀNĪ

  H. Corbin

  Ismaʿili philosopher, for a long time one of the great unknown figures in the history of Irano-Islamic philosophy.

• ABU’L-HOḎAYL AL-ʿALLĀF

  J. van Ess

  (ca. 135-227/752-841?), early Muʿtazilite theologian of universal reputation.

• ABU’L-ḤOSAYN BAṢRĪ

  D. Gimaret

  Muʿtazilite theologian and lawyer, d. 436/1044. 

• ABU’L-ḤOSAYN KĀTEB

  C. E. Bosworth

  official of the Buyids and writer in Arabic of the 4th/10th century. 

• ABU’L-JĀRŪD HAMDĀNĪ

  W. Madelung

  Kufan Shiʿite scholar and leader of the early Zaydite group named after him, the Jārūdīya.

• ABU’L-ḴAṬṬĀB ASADĪ

  A. Sachedina

  Founder of the extremist Shiʿite sect Ḵaṭṭābīya.

• ABU’L-ḴAYR B. AL-ḴAMMĀR

  W. Madelung

  Nestorian Christian physician, philosopher, theologian, and translator, b. Rabīʿ I, 331/November, 942 in Baghdad.

• ABU’L-ḴAYR KHAN

  Y. Bregel

  A descendant of Šïban (the younger son of Joči) and ruler of the Uzbek nomadic state in Dašt-e Qïpčaq in the 15th century.

• ABU'L-KHAYRIDS

  Yuri Bregel

  name used for the dynasty that ruled the khanate of Bukhara in 906-1007/1500-99. Until recently, this dynasty was incorrectly called in Western literature “Shaybanids” (or “Shibanids”).

• ABU’L-LAYṮ SAMARQANDĪ

  J. van Ess

  productive Hanafite jurist, author of a Koran commentary and of popular paraenetical works.

• ABU’L-MAʿĀLĪ

  J. van Ess

  Author of Bayān al-adyān, the oldest work on religions and sects written in Persian (11th-12th centuries).

• ABU’L-MAʿṢŪM MĪRZĀ

  D. Duda

  Safavid painter, portraitist, draftsman, engraver, and expert in artistic bookbinding and restoring who was extolled by the historian Qāżī Aḥmad (16th century).

• ABU’L-MAṮAL BOḴĀRĪ

  J. W. Clinton

  (or BOḴĀRĀʾĪ), a poet of the Samanid court.

• ABU’L-MOʾAYYAD BALḴĪ

  G. Lazard

  An early Persian poet and writer of the Samanid period, whose works have almost entirely disappeared.

• ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR ḴᵛĀFĪ

  H. Halm

  Shafeʿite jurist and traditionist (d. in Ṭūs in 500/1106) . He was one of the most important students of Emām-al-ḥaramayn Jovaynī.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿABDALLĀH KĀŠĀNĪ

  P. P. Soucek

  Historian of the reign of the Il-khan Olǰāytū and member of the Abū Ṭāher family of potters (14th century). 

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. ḤASAN

  C. E. Bosworth

  Vizier to the atabeg of Lorestān Šams-al-dawla Ḡāzī Beg Aydoḡmuš (7th/13th century).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD

  R. W. Bulliet

  A wealthy dehqān from Sabzavār who was prominent as a founder of madrasas in the second decade of the 5th/11th century.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM EBRĀHĪM SOLṬĀN

  EIr

  The only son of Kāmrān Mīrza, brother and rival of the Mughal emperor Homāyūn (r. 937-47, 962-63/1530-40, 1555-56).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM ESḤĀQ SAMARQANDI

  W. Madelung

  Hanafite scholar, Sufi, and judge (qāżī) of Samarqand (9th-10th centuries).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM HĀRŪN

  K. A. Luther

  Vizier of Atabeg Ozbek b. Moḥammad b. Eldagōz, ruler of Azerbaijan, 607-22/1210-25.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KAʿBĪ

  J. van Ess

  Administrator and intellectual of Persian descent, Hanafite jurist and foremost representative of the Moʿtazela in Khorasan (d. Šaʿbān, 319/February, 931).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KERMĀNĪ

  D. Pingree

  Author of a Ketāb fī oṣūl al-aḥkām (“Book concerning the foundations of astrological judgments”).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KHAN EBRĀHĪMĪ

  D. MacEoin

  Fourth head of the Kermānī branch of the Šayḵī school of Shiʿism (19th-20th centuries).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM KŪFĪ

  L. Giffen

  Scholar of philosophy, theology, and other disciplines who was at first an Emāmī Shiʿite but later embraced a form of extreme Shiʿism (d. near Šīrāz, 352/962).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM

  S. Moinul Haq

  (pen name MONʿEMĪ), 18th-century historian of Kashmir.

• ABU’L-QĀSEM NĀʾĪNĪ

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  Major representative (practitioner, instructor, author) of traditional medicine in late Qajar Persia (1245-1322/1829-30 to 1904-05).

• ABU’L-QĀSEM SAʿĪD

  D. Duda

  calligrapher named in the colophon of a Koran manuscript written in early nasḵī script. In the colophon the scribe calls himself the son or grandson of a pupil of Jawharī. That famous Arab lexicographer (originally from Turkestan) after extensive travels, settled in Nīšāpūr to teach, copy books, and pursue a literary career.

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• ABU’L-QĀSEM SOLṬĀN

  M. H. Pathan

  Bēglār chief of Sind, b. at Nasarpur, Sind, in 969/1562.

• ABU’L-RAYḤĀN BĪRŪNĪ

  Cross-Reference

  Scholar and polymath of the period of the late Samanids and early Ghaznavids and one of the two greatest intellectual figures of his time in the eastern lands of the Muslim world (362/973-after 442/1050). See BĪRŪNĪ, ABU’L-RAYḤĀN.

• ABU’L-RAYYĀN EṢFAHĀNĪ

  C. Cahen

  Buyid vizier (10th century).

• ABU’L-ŠAYḴ EṢFAHĀNĪ

  Cross-Reference

  Traditionist and Koran commentator, important principally for his Ṭabaqāt al-moḥaddeṯī (274-369/887-979). See EṢFAHĀNĪ, ABU’L-ŠAYḴ.

• ABU’L-TAYYEB ṬABARĪ

  J. Wakin

  Jurisconsult, judge (qāżī), and professor of legal sciences; he was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the leading Shafeʿites of 5th/11th century Baghdad.

• ABU’L-ṬAYYEB ṬĀHER

  M. Forstner

  founder of the Taherid dynasty of Khorasan; born 139/775-76 in Pūšang (Būšang), died 207/822 in Marv.

• ABU’L-WAFĀ B. SAʿID

  D. Pingree

  Author in Persian (15th century).

• ABU’L-WAFĀ BŪZJĀNI

  D. Pingree

  Mathematician and astronomer (10th-11th century).

• ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ḴᵛĀRAZMĪ

  H. Landolt

  Famous Sufi of Kobrawī affiliation, esoterist, scholar, poet, and musician (d. 835/1431-32).

• ABU’L-WAFĀʾ ŠĪRĀZĪ

  H. Algar

  Sufi of Shiraz, morīd of the well-known preacher, mystic and writer, Shah Dāʿī Elā Allāh Šīrāzī (fl. 10th/16th century).

• ABU’L-WAZIR MARVAZĪ

  L. A. Giffen

  Secretary and author (d. 186/802).

• ABU’L-YANBAḠĪ

  Y. Richard

  Iranian poet (d. 230/844).

• ABYĀNA

  E. Yarshater

  From a number of lingering old customs and practices it appears that the total conversion of Abyāna from Zoroastrianism to Islam took place relatively late. The inhabitants exhibit with pride an awareness of the ancient customs of the village.

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• ABYĀNAʾĪ

  E. Yarshater

  Dialect spoken in the village of Abyāna, one of a number of closely similar dialects spoken in the villages of Kāšān and its neighboring districts, all belonging to the Central Dialects of Iran (or Southern Median).

• ĀBYĀR

  E. Ehlers

  Title of the person given official charge of the irrigation of ābī “irrigated” lands.

• ĀBYĀRĪ

  B. Spooner

  Persian term meaning "irrigation." Although dry farming is important in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Khorasan, as well as some other districts, a large proportion of Iran’s agriculture has always depended upon irrigation. This article concentrates on the preindustrial forms that not only have been important in the evolution of Iranian culture and civilization but have constituted an important Iranian contribution to the development of water management systems in other parts of the world.

• ABZARĪ, ḴᵛĀJA ʿAMĪD-AL-DĪN

  A. E. Khairallah

  Poet and the vizier of the Salghurid Atabeg of Fārs Saʿd b. Zangī (594-623/1197-1226).

• ABZŌN

  M. F. Kanga

  Middle Persian term meaning “prosperity, increase” in Zoroastrianism.

• Ab~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Cross-Reference

  list of all the figure and plate images in the Ab entries