Table of Contents
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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.
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MOḤAMMAD b. ʿABD-ALLAH
C. Edmund Bosworth
(824/25-867), Abu’l -ʿAbbās, high official in Iraq and the central lands of the caliphate.
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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.
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MOḤAMMAD B. NOṢAYR
Yaron Friedman
Abu Šoʿayb al-Nomayri/al-Namiri (d. after 868), the founder and eponym of the Nomayriya/Namiriya sect.
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MOḤAMMAD NĀDER SHAH
May Schinasi
(1883-1933), king of Afghanistan, first representative of the new Dorrāni dynasty.
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MOḤAMMAD SHAH QĀJĀR
Jean Calmard
(1808-1848), the third ruler of the Qajar dynasty after his grandfather Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah.
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MOḤAMMAD-AYYUB KHAN
R. D. McChesney
born Amir Šēr-ʿAli Khan, a prominent Afghan political figure of the Moḥammadzi clan (1857-1914).
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MOḤAMMAD-TAQI WAKIL-AL-DAWLA ŠIRĀZI
Soli Shahvar
(1830-1911), prominent Iranian Bahai merchant from Shiraz.
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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.
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MOḤSENI, Akbar
Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi
(1912-1995) composer and prominent performer of the Ud (lute).
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MOḤTĀJ DYNASTY
Cross-Reference
See ĀL-E MOḤTĀJ.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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 Šervāni, Aṯir-al-Din Aḵsikati, and Jamāl-al-Din Eṣfahāni.
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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.
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MOJTAHED
Cross-Reference
“jurist” in Arabic. For the religious-legal sciences in Shiism, see EJTEHĀD.
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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.
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MOKRI TRIBE
Pierre Oberling
a Kurdish tribe of western Iranian Azerbaijan.
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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).
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MOLÉ, MARIJAN
Philippe Gignoux
(1924-63), distinguished scholar of ancient Iran and Persian Sufism.
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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.
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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.
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MOLLĀ ṢADRĀ ŠIRĀZI
Sajjad H. Rizvi
(1571/72-1635/36?), Ṣadr-al-Din Moḥammad, arguably the most significant Islamic philosopher after Avicenna.
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MOMAYYEZ, Morteżā
EIr
(1936-2005), illustrator, painter, teacher and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of graphic design in contemporary Iran.
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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.
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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.
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MONCHI-ZADEH, DAVOUD
Siamak Adhami
(Dāvud Monšizāda; b. Tehran, 28 August 1914; d. Uppsala, 13 July 1989), Iranian linguist and political activist.
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MONʿEMĪ
Cross-Reference
18th-century historian of Kashmir. See ABU’L-QĀSEM MOḤAMMAD ASLAM.
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MONGOLS
Peter Jackson
an Altaic people who conquered an empire that embraced China, Central Asia, the south Russian steppe, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.
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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.
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MONJIK TERMEḎI
Ehsan Shavarebi
a Persian-language poet of the late 10th century.
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MONKEY
Cross-Reference
See BŪZĪNA.
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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.
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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.
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MOQANNAʿ
Patricia Crone
(lit. “the veiled one,” d. 163/780 or later), leader of a rebellious movement in Sogdiana.
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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.
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MORḠĀB
Habib Borjian
district covering the Pamir Plateau in eastern Tajikistan, of which it is the administrative center.
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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).
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MOSADDEQ, HAMID
Saeed Rezaei
(1940-1998), Persian poet, lawyer, and university professor.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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MOSHFEQ-e KAZEMI, SAYYED MORTAZA
Ḥasan Mirʿābedini
(1904-1978), author of Iran’s first social novel.
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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.
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MOSTA’AN, Hosayn-Qoli
Ḥasan Mirʿābedini
(1904-1983), noted serial writer, journalist, and translator.
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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.
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MOʾTAMEN, Zeyn-al-ʿĀbedin
Ali Gheissari
A teacher, writer, and scholar of Persian literature.
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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.
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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, Kerman, Fars, and ʿErāq-e ʿAjam, which endured until its destruction by Timur (Tamerlane).
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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MUSĀ YABḠU
Osman G. Özgüdenli
the eponymous strongman of a Ḡozz clan, whose nephew Toḡrel founded the Saljuq dynasty.
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MUSHFIQI, ABDURAHMON
Keith Hitchins
(Mošfeqi, ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān), Tajik poet (1525-1588).
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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Marsiye Ḵāni
music sample
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Menu of Music Samples
music sample
a collection of music samples with their related entries on The Encyclopaedia Iranica.
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Mirqambar
music sample
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Mowlūd Ḵvāni in Mināb
music sample
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M~ CAPTIONS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cross-Reference
list of all the figure and plate images in the letter M entries.