Abstract

This paper seeks to look at the origins, employment, and claims associated with the title ṣāḥib-qirān. Occurring throughout the mediaeval to modern period, with special prominence during the early modern, the title underwent various transformations within particular polities and beyond. While any discussion of the ṣāḥib-qirān must give significant place to the life and career of Timur, the title is far older than the Central Asian conqueror. As is shown, roots of the title and its historical background suggest a pre-Islamic Iranian origin, particularly traced in Pahlavi literature.
Journal Information

Iran & the Caucasus deals with the history of the Iranian and Caucasian peoples. This multi-disciplinary journal aims at furthering our knowledge of the region on a wide variety of fields; economics, social sciences, archaeology, religion, literature, philology, and anthropology. Iran & the Caucasus is edited under the guidance of an editorial board consisting of scholars from the region itself, as well as from Europe and the United States. It is therefore unique in being a scholarly forum in the truest sense of the word on a region of growing importance, and a treasure-trove of information otherwise hard to get at. Iran and The Caucasus is supported by the Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies in Yerevan, Armenia.