Table of Contents

  • ABLUTION, ISLAMIC

    I. K. Poonawala

    (vożūʾ), the minor ritual purification performed before prayers.

  • ABLUTION, ZOROASTRIAN

    Cross-Reference

    See PADYĀB.

  • ABNĀʾ

    C. E. Bosworth

    "sons," term for the offspring of Persian soldiers and officials in the Yemen and of Arab mothers.

  • ABOULITES

    C. J. Brunner

    satrap of Susiana under Darius III, at the time of the Achaemenid collapse.

  • ABRADATAS

    C. J. Brunner

     a fictional king of Susa in Xenophon’s fictional, didactic life of Cyrus (Cyropaedia, books 5-7).

  • ABRAHAM

    Cross-Reference

    See EBRĀHĪM.

  • ABRAHAM OF CRETE

    George A. Bournoutian

    (Kretatsʾi; b. Kandia, Crete, ?- d. Ejmiatsin, 18 April 1737), a leader of the Armenian Church and the author of a chronicle about Nāder Shah Afšār.

  • ABRAHAM OF EREVAN

    George A. Bournoutian

    the author of a history of the wars in Armenian at the time of Nāder Shah Afšār.

  • ABRAHAM OF KAŠKAR

    Florence Jullien

    Christian monk of the 6th century CE, regarded as father of the monks in the Orient.

  • ABRAHAMIAN, ROUBEN

    Jennifer Manoukian

    Armenian Iranist, linguist, and translator. One of the first teachers of Pahlavi language at University of Tehran.

  • ABRĀZ

    C. J. Brunner

    Middle Persian “high, superior, height,” old Iranian *uparyānk- “above, high.”

  • ABRĪŠAM

    W. Eilers, M. Bazin and C. Bromberger, D. Thompson

    Abrīšam appears as a loan word from Iranian in Armenian aprišum, aprešum, Syriac/Mandean ʾbryšwm, and Arabic ebrīsam. The NPers. rēšam/rīšam is evidently only a shortened form of abrēšam. In dialects one also finds čolla (borrowed in Turkic dialects as čille), from *čullak, arabicized as ṣollaǰ, properly speaking, “very fine cotton.”

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  • ĀBRĪZAGĀN

    M. Boyce

    “the pouring of water,” name for a Zoroastrian feast; the term could be used for Tīragān and probably also for the name-day festival of Hordād, both of which were celebrated by people sprinkling one another joyfully with water.

  • ĀšBRĪZĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See TĪRAGĀN.

  • ABROCOMAS

    M. Dandamayev

    Persian satrap of Syria and commander under Artaxerxes II.

  • ABROCOMES

    M. Dandamayev

    a son of Darius I by Phrataguna, daughter of his brother Artanes.

  • ĀBŠĪNA HAMADĀN RŪD

    E. Ehlers

    name of a drainage system that covers several streams and small rivers along the eastern flank of the Alvand Kūh; it flows north into the kavīr of Qom.

  • ĀBŠŪR RŪD

    E. Ehlers

    “salt river.” The name ābšūr is very common in Iran for those rivers with a high salt content.

  • ĀBTĪN

    A. Tafażżolī

    father of the mythical king Feridun of the Pišdādi dynasty.

  • ABŪ ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SOLAMĪ

    S. Sh. Kh. Hussaini

    (325-412/937-1021), Sufi, traditionist, and hagiographer.

  • ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH B. AL-BAYYEʿ

    R. W. Bulliet

    a noted traditionist and local historian, b. 321/933, d. 405/1014.

  • ABŪ ʿABDALLĀH YAʿQŪB

    D. Sourdel

    vizier of the ʿAbbasid caliph Mahdī (r. 158-69/775-85).

  • ABŪ AḤMAD B. ABĪ BAKR KĀTEB

    C. E. Bosworth

    poet and official of the Samanids, fl. first half of the 4th/10th century.

  • ABŪ AḤMAD MONAJJEM

    A. E. Khairallah

    (241/855-56 to 13 Rabīʿ I 300/29 October 912), literary historian, music theorist, poet, and Muʿtazilite, boon companion to caliphs Mowaffaq, Moʿtażed, and Moktafī.

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ AḤMAD B. ŠĀḎĀN

    C. E. Bosworth

    governor (ʿamīd) of Balḵ and northern Afghanistan under the Saljuq ruler of Khorasan, Čaḡrī Beg Dāʾūd, and then under his son, Alp Arslan.

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ BALḴĪ

    Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

    author of a Šāh-nāma, according to Bīrūnī (Āṯār al-bāqīa, pp. 99f.).

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ DĀMḠĀNĪ

    C. E. Bosworth

    vizier of the Samanids in the last years of their power.

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ DAQQĀQ

    J. Chabbi

    ascetic of Nīšāpūr (d. 405/1015).

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ FĀRESĪ

    I. Abbas

    (288-377/900-87), grammarian at the court of the Buyid ʿAżod-al-dawla (d. 366/977).

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ MESKAWAYH

    Cross-Reference

    Persian chancery official and treasury clerk of the Buyid period, boon companion, litterateur and accomplished writer in Arabic on a variety of topics, including history, theology, philosophy and medicine (d. 421/1030). See MESKAWAYH, ABU ʿALI AḤMAD.

  • ABŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR

    Kh. A. Nizami

    (also known as SHAH BŪ ʿALĪ QALANDAR), Indian poet and saint, d. 725/1324. His mausoleum at Panipat remains a popular center for pilgrimage.

  • ABŪ ʿAMR AL-MĀZOLĪ

    J. van Ess

    Karrāmī theologian, fl. mid-4th/mid-10th century.

  • ABŪ ʿAṬĀ

    G. Tsuge

    one of the twelve modes in the dastgāh system of classical Iranian music; more precisely, it should be called āvāz-e Abū ʿAṭā or naḡma-ye Abū ʿAṭā.

  • ABŪ ʿAWĀNA

    J. A. Wakin

    a Shafeʿite legal scholar and traditionist.

  • ABŪ ʿAWN

    R. W. Bulliet

    a distinguished ʿAbbasid general, twice governor of Egypt and once of Khorasan.

  • ABŪ BAKR AL-WARRĀQ

    B. Reinert

    Sufi shaikh, born in Termeḏ, lived and worked in Balḵ, d. 280/893.

  • ABŪ BAKR B. ABĪ ṢĀLEḤ

    C. E. Bosworth

    vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century.

  • ABŪ BAKR B. PAHLAVĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See ATĀBAKĀN-E ĀḎARBĀYJĀN.

  • ABŪ BAKR B. SAʿD

    B. Spuler

    (623-58/1226-60), member of the Salghurid dynasty, atabeg of Fārs.

  • ABŪ BAKR ḤAṢĪRĪ

    Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

    Shafeʿite faqīh (jurist) and Ghaznavid official, d. 424/1033.

  • ABŪ BAKR KALĀBĀḎĪ

    W. Madelung

    author of the well-known compendium of Sufism al-Taʿarrof le-maḏhab ahl al-taṣawwof.

  • ABŪ BAKR MARVAZĪ

    A. A. Ivanov

    7th/13th century metalworker.

  • ABŪ BAKR NAYSĀBŪRĪ

    M. J. McDermott

    a jurist loosely belonging to the Shafeʿite school.

  • ABŪ BAKR QOHESTĀNĪ

    Ḡ. Ḥ. Yūsofī

     fl. 5th/11th century, a courtier and man of letters under the Ghaznavids and Saljuqs; himself a poet, he patronized poetry generously.

  • ABŪ BAKR SAMARQANDĪ

    I. Abbas

    (d. 268/881), a Hanafite jurist about whose life the available sources furnish no information.

  • ABŪ BAKR SARAḴSĪ

    J. W. Clinton

    a follower (but apparently not a contemporary) of Shaikh Abū Saʿīd b. Abi’l-Ḵayr (d. 440/1049).

  • ABŪ BAKR ṬŪSĪ ḤAYDARĪ

    B. Lawrence

    7th/13th century Indo-Muslim saint.

  • ABŪ ḎARR BŪZJĀNĪ

    M. N. Osmanov

    a Persian poet and Sufi shaikh contemporary with Sebüktigin (d. 387/997).

  • ABŪ ḎARR HERAVĪ

    J. A. Wakin

    a traditionist known primarily for his role in the transmission of Boḵārī’s Jāmeʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ.

  • ABŪ DOLAF AL-YANBŪʿĪ

    R. W. Bulliet

    Arab traveler, poet, and frequenter of the Buyid court (ca. mid-4th/10th century).