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Akhsitan I
Akhsitan I (also spelled Akhsatan; fa, اخستان یکم, Aḵestān) was the Shirvanshah after 1160, and thought to have reigned until the years 1197–1203/04. He was the son and successor of Manuchihr III (). His mother was Tamar, a Georgian princess from the Bagrationi dynasty. The details regarding Akhsitan's reign are uncertain and obscure. He may have ruled the kingdom together with members of his family, Shahanshah, Afridun II and Fariburz II. He is notable for moving his place of residence to Baku, which marked its beginning as a major city. Akhsitan was also notably the patron of both Khaqani and Nizami Ganjavi, two leading Persian poets. Name "Akhsitan" is a shortened version of the Georgian name ''Aghsarthan'', itself of Ossetian origin (cf. Ossetian ''äxsar'' or ''äxsart'', meaning "might"). ''The Georgian Chronicles'' refers Akhsitan as "Aysartan". Background "Shirvanshah" was the title of the rulers of the eastern Caucasian region Shirvan. During t ...
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Shamakhi
Shamakhi ( az, Şamaxı, ) is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving its name to the Soumak rugs. Eleven major earthquakes have rocked Shamakhi but through multiple reconstructions, it maintained its role as the economic and administrative capital of Shirvan and one of the key towns on the Silk Road. The only building to have survived eight of the eleven earthquakes is the landmark Juma Mosque of Shamakhi, built in the 8th century. History Shamakhi was in antiquity part of successive Persian empires and was first mentioned as ''Kamachia'' by the ancient Greco-Roman Egyptian geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 1st to 2nd century AD. Shamakhi was an important town during the Middle Ages and served as a capital of the Shirvanshah realm from the 8th to 15th centuries. Shamakhi maintained economic and cult ...
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Shirvan
Shirvan (from fa, شروان, translit=Shirvān; az, Şirvan; Tat: ''Şirvan''), also spelled as Sharvān, Shirwan, Shervan, Sherwan and Šervān, is a historical Iranian region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both pre-Islamic Sasanian and Islamic times. Today, the region is an industrially and agriculturally developed part of the Azerbaijan Republic that stretches between the western shores of the Caspian Sea and the Kura River, centered on the Shirvan Plain. History Etymology Vladimir Minorsky believes that names such as Sharvān (Shirwān), Lāyzān and Baylaqān are Iranian names from the Iranian languages of the coast of the Caspian Sea. There are several explanations about this name: * Shirvan or Sharvan are changed forms of the word "Shahrbān" ( fa, شهربان, links=no) which means "the governor". The word "Shahrban" has been used since Achaemenian Dynasty as "Xshathrapawn" (satrap) to refer to different states of the kingdom. * Shervan in Per ...
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Layla And Majnun (Nizami Ganjavi Poem)
"Layla and Majnun" (''Persian'' لیلی و مجنون) is the third poem of the classic of Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209, Ganja). This poem is included in "Khamsa" and was written in 1188 in Persian. It is based on the story of the ancient Arabic legend "Layla and Majnun" about the unhappy love of the young man Qays, nicknamed "Majnun" ("The Madman"), towards beautiful Layla. The poem is dedicated to Shirvanshah Ahsitan I, and was written on his order. There are 4600 stanzas in the poem. This poem is considered as the first literary processing of the legend. Summary of the poem The poet Qays fell in love with his cousin Layla, but Layla had to marry another man: Qays went insane and retired to the desert, where he composed poems dedicated to the beloved Layla. The couple united only after death. Nizami slightly modified the plot: Qays goes crazy with love, and that's why Layla's parents reject him. Layla, being forced to marry, dies cause of love for Qays, being buried in a wedding ...
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Qasida
The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writing poetry, often translated as ode, passed to other cultures after the Arab Muslim expansion. The word ''qasidah'' is still used in its original birthplace, Arabia, and in all Arab countries. Well known ''qasā'id'' include the Seven Mu'allaqat and Qasida Burda ("Poem of the Mantle") by Imam al-Busiri and Ibn Arabi's classic collection "The Interpreter of Desires". The classic form of qasida maintains a single elaborate metre throughout the poem, and every line rhymes on the same sound.Akiko Motoyoshi Sumi, ''Description in Classical Arabic Poetry: ''Waṣf'', Ekphrasis, and Interarts Theory'', Brill Studies in Middle Eastern literatures, 25 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), p. 1. It typically runs from fifteen to eighty lines, and sometimes more th ...
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Persian Literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan) and South Asia where the Persian language has historically been either the native or official language. For example, Rumi, one of the best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh (in modern-day Afghanistan) or Wakhsh (in modern-day Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya (in modern-day Turkey), at that time the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia. The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Tajikist ...
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Malik
Malik, Mallik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Maleek, Malick, Mallick, or Melekh ( phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤊; ar, ملك; he, מֶלֶךְ) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic during the Late Bronze Age (e.g. Aramaic, Canaanite, Hebrew). Although the early forms of the name were to be found among the pre-Arab and pre-Islamic Semites of the Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, it has since been adopted in various other, mainly but not exclusively Islamized or Arabized non-Semitic Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings. The female version of Malik is Malikah ( ar, ملكة; or its various spellings such as Malekeh or Melike), meaning "queen". The name Malik was originally found among various pre-Arab and non-Muslim Semitic peoples such as the indigenous ethnic Assyrians of Iraq, Amorites, Jews, Arameans, Mandeans, Syriacs, and pre-Islami ...
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Epigraphy
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers. Specifically excluded from epigraphy are the historical significance of an epigraph as a document and the artistic value of a literature, literary composition. A person using the methods of epigraphy is called an ''epigrapher'' or ''epigraphist''. For example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are responsible for reconstructing, translating, and dating the trilingual inscription and finding any relevant circumstances. It is the work of historians, however, to determine and interpret the events recorded by the inscription as document. Often, epigraphy and history are competences practised by the same person. Epigraphy ...
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Diwan (poetry)
In Islamic cultures of the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and South Asia, a Diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''divân'', ar, ديوان, ''dīwān'') is a collection of poems by one author, usually excluding his or her long poems ( mathnawī). The vast majority of Diwan poetry was lyric in nature: either ghazals or ''gazel''s (which make up the greatest part of the repertoire of the tradition), or ''kasîde''s. There were, however, other common genres, most particularly the ''mesnevî'', a kind of verse romance and thus a variety of narrative poetry; the two most notable examples of this form are the ''Layla and Majnun'' (ليلى و مجنون) of Fuzûlî and the ''Hüsn ü Aşk'' (حسن و عشق; "Beauty and Love") of Şeyh Gâlib. Originating in Persian literature, the idea spread to the Arab and Turkish worlds, and South Asia, and the term was sometimes used in Europe, not always in the same way. Etymology The English usage of the phrase "diwan poetry" comes from the Arab ...
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Qizil Arslan
Muzaffar al-Din Qizil Arslan Uthman ( fa, مظفر الدین قزل ارسلان عثمان), better known as Qizil Arslan (), was the ruler ('' atabeg'') of the Eldiguzids from 1186 to 1191. He was the brother and successor of Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan, and was later succeeded by his nephew Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr. Background Qizil Arslan was the son of Eldiguz, a former Kipchak military slave of the Seljuk Empire, who rose to prominence and established the Eldiguzid dynasty, and from 1160 had managed to make the Seljuk Sultan of western Iran his puppet, thus taking control over most of western Iran. However, during the reign of his son and successor, Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan (r. 1175–1186), the dynasty was weakened and lost many of its territories, retaining only control of Azerbaijan and Arran. During this period, Qizil Arslan was in charge of Tabriz and its surroundings. Reign Qizil Arslan ascended the throne in 1186 after Jahan Pahlavan's death, and assumed the title of ...
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Eldiguzids
The Ildegizids, EldiguzidsC.E. Bosworth, "Ildenizids or Eldiguzids", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Edited by P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs et al., Encyclopædia of Islam, 2nd Edition., 12 vols. with indexes, etc., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960–2005. Vol 3. pp 1110-111. Excerpt 1: "Ildenizids or Eldiguzids, a line of Atabegs of Turkish slave commanders who governed most of northwestern Persia, including Arran, most of Azarbaijan, and Djibal, during the second half of the 6th/12th century and the early decades of the 7th/13th century". Excerpt 2: "The Turkish Ildenizids shared to the full in the Perso-Islamic civilization" ( fa, ایلدگزیان) or Ildenizids, also known as Atabegs of Azerbaijan ( ''Atabakan-e Āzarbayjan)'' were a Turkic dynastyBritannica. ArticleEldegüzid dynasty Eldegüzid dynasty, also spelled Ildigüzid, Ildegüzid, Ildegizid, or Ildenizid, (1137–1225), Iranian atabeg dynasty of Turkish origin that ruled in Azer ...
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George III Of Georgia
George III ( ka, გიორგი III) (died 27 March 1184), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 8th King of Georgia from 1156 to 1184. He became king when his father, Demetrius I, died in 1156, which was preceded by his brother's revolt against their father in 1154. His reign was part of what would be called the Georgian Golden Age – a historical period in the High Middle Ages, during which the Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its military power and development. George was the father of Queen Tamar the Great. Life He succeeded on his father Demetrius I's death in 1156. He changed his father's defensive policy into a more aggressive one and resumed offensive against the neighboring Seljuqid rulers in Armenia. The same year he ascended to the throne, George launched a successful campaign against the Shah-Armens. It may be said that the Shah-Armen took part in almost all the campaigns undertaken against Georgia between 1130s to 1160s. Moreover, Shah-Armens enlisted the ...
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Derbent
Derbent (russian: Дербе́нт; lez, Кьвевар, Цал; az, Дәрбәнд, italic=no, Dərbənd; av, Дербенд; fa, دربند), formerly romanized as Derbend, is a city in Dagestan, Russia, located on the Caspian Sea. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second-most important city of Dagestan. Derbent occupies the narrow gateway between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains connecting the Eurasian Steppe to the north and the Iranian Plateau to the south; covering an area of , with a population of roughly 120,000 residents. Derbent claims to be the oldest city in Russia, with historical documentation dating to the 8th century BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Due to its strategic location, over the course of history, the city changed ownership many times, particularly among the Persian, Arab, Mongol, Timurid, and Shirvan kingdoms. In the 19th century, the city passed from Persian into Russian ha ...
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